Google Fiber, Allo and Ting press FCC to upgrade broadband speed definition

In a move that could put more pressure on US cable operators to upgrade their upstream capabilities, the CEOs of three fiber broadband operators – Google Fiber, Allo Fiber and Ting Internet – are urging the FCC to upgrade its current definition of broadband.

In a letter issued to the FCC this week, Google Fiber CEO Dinni Jain, Allo Fiber CEO Bradley Moline and Ting Internet CEO Elliot Noss said it's high time for the Commission to beef up its definition of broadband – from today's 25 Mbit/s downstream to 3 Mbit/s upstream to a symmetrical 100 Mbit/s by 100 Mbit/s.

Today's definition "is outdated and no longer meets the needs of consumers," the execs claimed. "The 25/3 Mbps definition of broadband was adopted in 2015, and was even then considered obsolete by many commentators. It is even more obsolete now."

The speed definition should be raised, they added, as demand increases for applications such as videoconferencing, telehealth and streaming. They also cited online gaming, though for such applications low latency is generally viewed as a more critical metric than better upstream throughput.

Pressure from the trio of fiber service providers comes nearly 18 months after FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel issued a proposal to evaluate the state of US broadband that would also include an increase of the current minimum speed standard to 100 Mbit/s down and 20 Mbit/s up while setting sights on a future goal of 1 Gbit/s down by 500 Mbit/s up.

Related:'Extreme power users' an upgrade opportunity for broadband ops – OpenVault

"The 25/3 metric isn't just behind the times, it's a harmful one because it masks the extent to which low-income neighborhoods and rural communities are being left behind and left offline," Rosenworcel argued.

Broadband usage up but slowing

Google Fiber, Allo Fiber and Ting Internet pointed to a Q3 2023 OpenVault study finding that the average US household used over 500 gigabytes of data per month, up 11% from the prior year. OpenVault said the increase was driven in part by operators launching speed upgrades alongside the use of more bandwidth-intensive applications.

OpenVault's Q3 report also referenced a small but growing group of "extreme power users" who chew up about 5 terabytes of data per month and are part of a group that is more upstream-heavy than users in other categories. However, the overall pace of data consumption has slowed considerably since the early stages of the pandemic. And overall average usage remains largely asymmetric – the average monthly downstream usage dropped to 514.4 GB in Q3, while the average upstream usage climbed to 35.9 GB, according to OpenVault.

Related:How Broadcom and MaxLinear will push the limits of DOCSIS 3.1

Exploiting cable's weakness

The argument set forth by Google Fiber, Allo Fiber and Ting Internet plays to the fiber providers' strength, that fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) is well positioned to deliver symmetrical, multi-gigabit broadband services.

It also points to a comparative weakness in most of today's hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks. While DOCSIS-based networks can easily match the proposed downstream definition, they are challenged to meet it on the upstream side.

Cable operators are looking to remedy that with "mid-split" and "high-split" upgrades that dedicate more spectrum to the upstream. The emergence of upgraded DOCSIS 3.1 capabilities would also help cable operators hit those higher upstream numbers, as would coming DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades.

Meanwhile, the proposed speed definitions from the fiber operators would leave satellite broadband offerings in the dust. While some new satellite broadband speed tiers offer downstream speeds up to 100 Mbit/s and more, they still don't offer anything that can match those speeds upstream.