The FCC, which released its latest Internet access services status report (PDF) on Thursday, found that 68 percent of 90.96 million "reportable" Internet access connections fell short of its speed benchmark in both directions, or in one direction.

Why this matters
The FCC issues this report twice a year, but it's taking on greater importance lately as the Commission pursues its far-reaching National Broadband Plan. As part of a longer-term vision, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has introduced a "100 Squared" initiative that aims to deliver 100Mbit/s services to 100 million households. (See FCC Chair Sets 2020 Broadband Vision .)
The report is also emerging as the FCC looks to reestablish its authority on broadband by trying to codify a new set of network neutrality rules.
Free Press wasted little time to blast the report, calling the analysis "highly flawed and misleading" because it "grossly overstates the level of broadband competition." It wants the FCC to use new data that would allow it to establish the market's overall competitiveness by studying the relationship between market concentration and broadband quality, price, and adoption.
For more
For more on the FCC's broadband-focused regulatory efforts, please see:
- Net Neutrality Sweep: Everyone's Ticked
- FCC: Broadband Starts at 4 Mbit/s
- Policy Watch: Drafting a Broadband Plan
- FCC Chair Sets 2020 Broadband Vision
- FCC: Up to 24M Lack Broadband Access
- The National Broadband Plan
Thanks for those great comments. It would be more fair, as you said, to note that the report does base its data on subsribership levels versus availability... so someone who takes a low end lite tier, for example, would probably not be anywhere near the reach the FCC's broadband speed benchmarks. But even the FCC is making comparisons between the statement it made in July with the data that's represents the end of 2010. So, we are likely still a year away before we can make a true comparison that ties the FCC's collected data to the most recent benchmarks.
Also, the speeds referenced are also based on advertised speeds, right? So there's lots of wiggle room given there. JB