Today, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its annual “Broadband Deployment Report” for 2020, in which the agency found that broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner to all Americans. It further refused to change the threshold for broadband speeds, which will remain at 25 mbps download and 3 mbps upload for another year. Access Now filed comments with New America’s Open Technology Institute in this proceeding last November urging the FCC to, among other things, increase that threshold.
“Even under normal circumstances, the conclusion that broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner is simply wrong,” said Eric Null, U.S. Policy Manager at Access Now. “Under today’s exceptional circumstances with much of the nation staying home and in desperate need of more and better broadband, today’s conclusion shows the FCC would rather callously stick its head in the sand and pretend everything is fine than tackle actual, documented connectivity problems that have plagued underrepresented communities in this country for decades. Thanks to the FCC, those communities likely will continue to go without high-quality internet at a time when that is unacceptable.”