Yesterday’s FCC report estimates that at least 80 million Americans don’t have high-speed Internet access – defined as download speeds of at least 4 Mbps and upload 1 Mbps – at home. (Soon the Commission will release another report comparing these results to those in other countries.)
This service is completely unavailable to at least 14 million Americans – the FCC estimates that “1,024 out of 3,230 counties in the United States and its territories are unserved by broadband[, and t]hese unserved areas are home to 24 million Americans living in 8.9 million households.” Particularly for Americans in poorer areas, more rural counties, and tribal lands, adequate connectivity isn’t even a possibility currently. The Commission has now said that those Americans will not gain such access in the near future absent changes in policy.
While not downplaying what the carriers in America have already done, the FCC is making clear that much more needs to happen. In a heavily footnoted report, the Commission is saying what most Americans already know: “Given the ever-growing importance of broadband to our society, we are unable to conclude that broadband is being reasonably and timely deployed to all Americans in this situation.”
That seems like a reasonable and data-driven statement.