The FCC has quietly walked back its most ambitious internet target, eliminating a long-term gig-speed goal in its latest broadband deployment report. The shift, outlined in a report dated August 14, signals a marked change in how the agency frames the importance of high-speed connectivity for Americans.
The change begins in the report’s opening line, which states that “high-speed broadband is often essential to full participation in modern society.” That single word, “often,” represents a departure from the previous report issued under President Joe Biden’s FCC, which described affordable, reliable broadband as “essential to full participation in modern life.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres had described broadband access as “a matter of life and death.”
Christopher Ali, a professor of telecommunications at Penn State University, said the wording sets the tone for the entire document, suggesting that broadband is no longer considered as important as it was five years ago.
What the New Broadband Standard Data Shows
The reports are required under the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which directs the agency to assess whether advanced telecommunications capabilities are reaching all Americans in a reasonable and timely manner. That gap between people with modern internet access and those without is commonly known as the digital divide.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the divide is rapidly closing, pointing to data sets showing that speeds are up, prices are down, and competition is intensifying. According to the report, 96.9% of Americans now have access to speeds of 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload, the standard the Commission adopted for broadband in 2024.
Those figures come with an important caveat: they are self-reported by internet service providers. Doug Dawson, a longtime broadband expert and author of the industry blog Pots and Pans, wrote that some ISPs may be reporting exactly 100/20Mbps capability to the FCC while delivering slower service in practice.
Why the Gigabit Target Was Eliminated
Carr voted against the 100/20Mbps standard when it passed two years ago. He also objected to the Commission’s long-term goal of raising the standard to 1,000/500Mbps, describing it in a dissenting statement as a “Trojan Horse to exclude fixed wireless” that would lead to “wasteful overbuilding.”
That gig-speed goal has now been removed. The Commission argued that the long-term target of 1,000Mbps download and 500Mbps upload was unfairly biased against slower technologies such as fixed wireless and satellite. The report states that it is impossible to predict long-term technological developments and shifts in consumer preferences, adding that the private sector, driven by competition, does not need the Commission to centrally plan technological development.
By citing the need for technological neutrality, the FCC has effectively abandoned its goal of bringing gigabit internet to every American household.
