US Internet service providers want the FCC to say what broadband actually is

Largest Internet service providers of the United States applied to the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a conservative definition of “broadband” offering to establish minimum speeds which are significantly lower than in many other developed countries. ISPs filed their submissions with the FCC seeking it comments on how the agency should define broadband for a report to be submitted to Congress early next year.

The Obama administration is seeking ways to extend broadband services to both unserved Americans living in rural areas and to make broadband affordable for those living in urban areas.

A 2008 study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development showed that the United States ranked 19th with an advertised rate of 9.6 megabytes per second (mbps). The top three countries were Japan with 92.8 mbps, Korea with 80.8 mbps and France with 51 mbps.

Meantime some of the submissions proposed speeds that even undercut an international ranking of U.S. Internet speed. AT&T argued that as long as many Americans do not use certain services that require high speeds the definition must take into account only those services people really need and use. Verizon Communications Inc and Verizon Wireless urged the FCC to maintain speeds of at least 0.768 mbps downstream and 0.200 mbps upstream. Comcast argued for defining "basic" broadband as having a downstream and upstream speed of 0.256 mbps.

But there were other groups who urged for higher speeds. Free Press, a public interest group, urged the FCC to craft a definition with a minimum upstream and downstream speed of at least 5 mbps for each end user.