The word “broadband” is often thrown around in marketing materials, but its actual definition has been malleable over the years. Now, however, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced a new report to indicate what should be considered “broadband.”

The new standard sets 100 Mbps download speeds and 20 Mbps upload speeds, higher than when they were last set in 2015. At that point, the FTC decided on 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds. That’s how far we’ve come.

You may be wondering where these numbers came from and according to the FTC, “based on the standard now used in multiple federal and state programs,” as well as “consumer usage patterns” and “what’s actually available.”

According Speedtest.net, the average download speed in the US is 256 Mbps, which is eight times faster than it was a decade earlier. In case you’re wondering, that puts the country 12th in the world for internet speed. As points out Toms Hardwarestreaming movies on Netflix requires 15 Mbps or higher for 4K content, while Nvidia GeForce Now requires 35 Mbps for 1080p game streaming.

However, the FTC report concluded that an investigation conducted in December 2022 found some deficiencies in how the country is currently doing with fast internet accessibility.

The report concludes that advanced telecommunications capability is not being developed in a reasonable and timely manner based on the total number of Americans, rural Americans, and people living on tribal lands who do not have access to such capabilities, and the fact that these development gaps are not closing fast enough.

In addition, the report indicates that it has a long-term goal for “broadbanding,” eventually culminating in 1 Gbps download and 500 Mbps upload speeds. He did not provide a timeline for that goal, but based on the last time a report on broadband was given, it could be many years before another update is provided.

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