Today the FCC released its 2020 Broadband Deployment Report, which found, among other things, that 14% more Americans have access to fixed terrestrial broadband than in the previous year, and that under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, broadband is being deployed to all Americans “on a reasonable and timely basis.”
The following statement should be attributed to Gigi Sohn:
The FCC’s conclusion that broadband is being deployed to all Americans on a reasonable and timely basis defies reality. Over the past six weeks it has become painfully apparent to the press, policymakers and the general public that tens of millions of Americans don’t have access to high-speed broadband Internet service. Yet Chairman Pai has decided that it’s time to take a victory lap even as millions of children cannot do their schoolwork, workers cannot telecommute and families cannot connect to friends, neighbors or each other during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FCC’s report suffers from many flaws, but two especially warrant mention. The first is that once again the FCC relies upon data from broadband Internet access providers that bipartisan members of Congress and the agency itself admit grossly overstates the number of Americans with access to broadband. Second, the FCC stubbornly refuses to change the definition of broadband from 25 Mbps download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed, a definition the Wheeler FCC set 5 years ago. Anyone who is telecommuting while their spouse does the same and their children engage in distance learning knows that 25/3 broadband is woefully inadequate. While the Chairman frequently boasts about the improvements in broadband speeds during his tenure, he and his Republican colleagues declined to set a new definition that reflects both those speeds and how Americans use broadband today.
Gigi Sohn is a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and a Benton Institute Senior Fellow. She was Counselor to former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler from November 2013-December 2016. Gigi can be reached for comment at the above email or at 202-253-0876.