FCC to consider changing the definition of “broadband” to 25Mbps, up from the current 4Mbps
The FCC may consider a stricter definition of broadband in the Netflix age — What is high-speed Internet? Believe it or not, there is a technical definition. Currently, it's set at 4 megabits per second.
Context & Ripple Effects
The definitional move lands mid-fight over the Commission's rules themselves: earlier this month Chairman Wheeler revised his proposed broadband rules after criticism of the fast-lane approach, sought public comment on whether to reclassify internet service, and put a prohibition on segregating traffic into fast and slow lanes out for consultation ahead of final rules later this year. Redefining broadband from 4Mbps to 25Mbps would sit alongside that proceeding rather than inside it.
The story traveled widely on pickup day — PC World framed it directly against a bill that would prohibit the FCC from treating broadband as a utility — and the rumored trigger is consumer-side: streaming video demand, with Netflix the named reference point for why 4Mbps no longer describes what users need.
First-order effects
- ISPs selling tiers at or near 4Mbps — the current floor — would stop counting as broadband providers under the new definition, shrinking the pool of households the Commission can report as served.
- For the FCC, the stricter benchmark changes its own Section 706 arithmetic: fewer Americans counted as having broadband access strengthens the factual basis for whatever intervention it chooses in the ongoing rulemaking.
Second-order effects
- A higher bar makes concentrated markets look thinner — Ars Technica's later analysis under the adopted 25Mbps standard found Comcast holding 56% share — handing critics of cable consolidation fresh ammunition during merger and net-neutrality debates.
- Incumbent carriers face a choice between upgrading advertised speeds or ceding the 'broadband' label, pushing capital expenditure toward network upgrades in exactly the period their lobbying is aimed at blunting Title II obligations.
Third-order effects
- If adopted, the definition becomes a recurring political lever: benchmarks ratchet upward as streaming demand grows, and each reset redraws the map of underserved America without any wire actually being laid — inviting the congressional pushback already visible in the bill to block utility treatment.
- The episode entangles two proceedings — the speed definition and the net-neutrality rules — so that statistical definitions become a battleground in the broader fight over whether broadband is an information service or a regulated utility.
The trend: Broadband speed definitions ratchet upward with bandwidth-heavy services like Netflix, turning a technical benchmark into a recurring regulatory lever over ISP classification and investment.