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| Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom WheelerPhoto: AP |
More than 12 million US households no longer have a
high-speed Internet connection.
That’s according to the Federal Communications
Commission, which voted Thursday to raise the download standard for what
qualifies as broadband Internet.
The new standard of 25 megabits per second replaces
the previous standard of 4 mbps. The minimum upload standard was also raised to
3 mpbs from 1 mbps — a move that instantly reduced qualified US households with
broadband by 13.1 percent.
Those losing their broadband access due to the new
definition join the 6.3 percent of US households who lacked access under the
old definition.
The new standards were part of a 3-2 vote to
embrace the findings of the 2015 Broadband Progress Report, whose presenters
called advance telecommunications capability “enough broadband to originate and
receive high quality voice, data, graphics and video.”
The old so-called 4/1 standard, which the new 25/3
standard replaces, was established in 2010.
Observers immediately wondered if broadband’s new
definition would affect the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
The broadband share of both companies will increase
significantly with the new standards, as their cable connections invariably
deliver data in excess of 25 mbps.
Households dropping out of the broadband universe
are mostly customers still using the dial-up DSL services of telephone companies.
AT&T’s DSL offering tops out at 6 mbps down,
for example, while Verizon’s only goes to 15 mbps.
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