FCC redefines broadband, says many more lack high-speed Internet than previously thought

Millions more Americans lack meaningful broadband access to the Internet than previously believed, and the prospects for getting it to those 14 to 24 million people are bleak, says a report released Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission. The conclusion stemmed in large measure from the FCC's redefinition of broadband, to a truly high speed more reflective of current needs.

"This newly pessimistic stance contradicted previous statements by the FCC, which had said that high-speed Internet service was being made available to all Americans in a timely fashion," Brandon Griggs of CNN reports. "The report found disproportionately large segments of people without broadband access in rural areas of North Carolina, Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky, among other states."

The report was the FCC's sixth on the subject since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 required it to measure the "digital divide" between those with broadband access and those without, but FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps termed it "the first really credible effort" by the agency to deliver findings based on quality data. "The sixth time is the charm," he told Griggs. "The documented failure to connect millions upon millions of Americans disproves previous FCC findings that broadband is being reasonably and timely deployed."

The change stemmed largely from the FCC's new definition of broadband, which had been "200 kilobits per second downstream, a standard set over a decade ago when Web pages were largely text-based, to 4 megabits per second downstream, a minimum generally required for using today's video-rich applications and services," Griggs writes. FCC reports 65 percent of Americans have high-speed Internet access at home. (Read more)