Fact Sheet: Chairman Wheeler Proposes New Rules for Protecting the Open Internet

From Wheeler Statement: “Today, by issuing the first Broadband Progress Report of my chairmanship, the Commission offers its assessment of where we stand. We found that we have made notable progress, but many challenges remain. Perhaps most significantly, we found that to get the right answers we needed to update the question. First, the good news. Private industry continues to invest billions of dollars to expand America’s broadband — $75 billion a year by one analysis. Both fixed and mobile providers continue to improve broadband speeds, and current and new entrants to the market are investing and expanding broadband availability to many Americans with speeds in some locations exceeding 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). No doubt, we have seen improvements in our wired and wireless broadband infrastructure that are delivering real benefits for our economy and the American people. But remember what Congress asked: are “advanced telecommunications … being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion?” The first step to answering that question is to define “advanced telecommunications” in 2015. As this report makes clear, it ain’t what it used to be. For starters, “advanced” means at the forefront, progressive, cutting-edge. It doesn’t mean the average or the happy medium. The current benchmark of 4 megabits per second (Mbps) was established in 2010, before the iPad had even been introduced. Safe to say, consumer behavior and the marketplace has changed. Four Mbps is less than the recommended capacity to stream a single HD video. Now consider that the average connected household has seven Internet-connected devices — including televisions, desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. On any given evening, it would not be surprising to see one child doing online homework, another streaming a movie, one parent uploading data files for work, and another parent paying bills or downloading photos while also streaming music or video. That’s not just tough to do with a 4 Mbps connection, it’s pretty much impossible without taking turns being online, which is a non-starter. In 2015, taking turns to share the Internet bandwidth is as absurd as taking turns to use the electricity.”

• See also NYT – In Net Neutrality Plan, F.C.C. Chief Sees Internet Service Regulated as Public Utility