FCC to Vote on 25 Mbps Speed Hike at Jan. 29 Meeting

Add the FCC's proposal to change the definition of high-speed broadband downstream speeds from 4 Mbps to 25 Mbps to the list of things being fast tracked at the FCC as the President pushes high-speed broadband as a State of the Union priority.

According to a well-placed FCC source, chairman Tom Wheeler plans to add that vote to the Jan. 29 meeting. The vote will be on the FCC's latest Sec. 706 report to Congress on whether advanced telecommunications is being deployed to all Americans in a timely fashion.

The report concludes it is not, in part based on the new 25 Mbps table stakes for high-speed broadband—though just last month the FCC made 10 Mbps downstream the standard for the Connect America Fund Universal Service Fund broadband subsidies.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.