Rural Commenters Urge FCC to Adopt Higher Broadband Benchmark

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association were among the industry groups calling for raising the Federal Communications Commission fixed broadband benchmark from its current 100/20 Mbps benchmark. The groups filed comments earlier this week in the Commission’s annual Section 706 broadband inquiry. A decision on changes to the FCC benchmark could come in a later Section 706 report. NTCA’s comments cited studies to show that consumer demand is rapidly exceeding 100/20 Mbps, leading the association to quote Michelangelo Buonarroti: “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Hitting a low, easy-to-achieve target could leave rural Americans without the connectivity needed to compete in the emerging environment of artificial intelligence, telework, telehealth, precision agriculture, and other advanced functions. NRECA, in its comments, noted that a majority of its electric cooperative members offering broadband service offer a symmetrical 100 Mbps tier and that for many of them, 100/100 Mbps is “the very lowest speed tier they offer.”