FCC Eyes Average Internet Speeds for Rural Areas
With two months to go until the FCC is scheduled to unveil its plan for improving broadband service across the U.S., agency officials seem to be settling on relatively modest speeds for rural areas.
Officials at the Federal Communications Commission looking at setting a floor for Internet speed to which all Americans have access, particularly in rural areas which still rely on dial-up Internet service. FCC officials are looking at speeds in the 2-4 mbps range, said Blair Levin, a former telecom analyst who’s overseeing the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. Mbps, or megabits per second, represents the millions of bits per second that flow across Internet lines to your PC.
“That’s kind of the range. A lot of people say that we ought to have big goals of 100 mbps to every home. When you look at the countries who say they’re doing that, what they’re doing is offering 100 mbps to some homes,” Mr. Levin said Monday on the CSPAN show “The Communicators,” which airs this weekend.
