The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to push minimum broadband network benchmark speeds to 1 Gb/s, which could place tremendous pressure on current domestic broadband service and equipment providers.

The government agency recently released a notice of inquiry (NOI) for comments toward setting a national goal for minimum universal broadband network service speeds of 1 Gb/s on the downlink and 500 Mb/s on the uplink. That would be 40 times greater on the downlink and nearly 167 times faster on the uplink compared to the 25 Mb/s downlink, 3 Mb/s uplink speed benchmark that was established in 2015.

“During the pandemic and even before it, the needs of internet users surpassed the FCC’s 25/3 standard for broadband. This standard is not only outdated, it masks the extent to which low-income neighborhoods and rural communities are being left offline and left behind,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel noted in a statement. “In order to get big things done, it is essential to set big goals. That is why we are kicking off this inquiry to update our national broadband standard and also set a long-term goal for gigabit speeds.”

Dan Hays, a partner at consulting firm PwC, explained to SDxCentral in an email that the FCC’s move “is a significant step toward forcing the sunset and upgrade of outdated networks whose performance is no longer fit for purpose for most users in America.

“As remote work and schooling have soared, the past few years have seen significant growth in broadband usage, particularly for bandwidth-hungry videoconferencing, video streaming, video upload and file sharing applications, increasing the minimum broadband benchmarks makes all the sense in the world,” Hays noted.

The FCC is also currently pushing an NOI that would increase minimum broadband speeds to 100 Mb/s downlink and 20 Mb/s uplink tied to the disbursement of funding from the government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. This would require BEAD funding recipients to provide at least that level of broadband performance.

Hays noted “the proposed increases in broadband benchmark speeds clearly advantage operators of fiber optic networks that have consistently demonstrated an ability to already meet the benchmarks at hand. They are also beneficial to coaxial cable networks, most of which have adopted fiber-rich cores and closely resemble pure fiber operations already.”

Those initial BEAD speed benchmarks do open up an opportunity beyond standard fiber deployments. This could include 5G-based cellular and also satellite broadband services.

Tammy Parker, principal analyst at GlobalData, wrote in a report last year that while she expects fiber to be prioritized over “other technological approaches … fixed wireless and satellite solutions will most certainly need to be considered as part of the technology mix because it is not feasible to deploy fiber to many of the unserved and underserved areas that are supposed to be prioritized under BEAD.”

However, the FCC’s push toward the 1 Gb/s downlink speed benchmark could prove challenging for all.

A recent test from Ookla showed U.S.-based mobile carriers providing median 5G downlink speeds between 101 Mb/s and 225 Mb/s.

Mobile operators have been testing ways to boost their network speeds by aggregating spectrum bands to form a larger channel path. T-Mobile US, for instance, recently tested four-carrier aggregation in parts of its network that produced peak downlink speeds in excess of 3 Gb/s.

PwC’s Hays did note that operators will face some financial pressure to support these speeds in broad commercial deployments.

“Mobile networks will be hard-pressed to embrace the proposed standards, given that they could require significant network upgrades and the acquisition and deployment of additional spectrum, which has already caused carriers' balance sheets to swell under the pressure of increased debt loads,” Hays added.

A separate Ookla test of satellite broadband network service providers found connection speeds struggling to match the FCC’s BEAD requirement.

Those tests showed satellite broadband provider Starlink providing downlink connection speeds on both sides of the 100 Mb/s benchmark across different countries. Uplink speeds were similarly straddling the 20 Mb/s mark.

New entrants into the satellite broadband space have touted various performance benchmarks.

Amazon is claiming its Project Kuiper satellite broadband service has shown downlink speeds of up to 1 Gb/s using its largest customer terminal.

AT&T, AST SpaceMobile, Vodafone and Nokia recently claimed they were able to stream a 5G download data link between a satellite and a terrestrial terminal unit at speeds up to 14 Mb/s. This surpassed a 10 Mb/s space-to-ground link they were able to stream in June using a 4G LTE connection.

Fiber-based broadband providers are also not out of the woods. Ookla testing showed most of the country's fixed-connection providers showed median downlink speeds of around 250 Mb/s. However, many of those providers are actively working to deploy new data over cable service interface specifications (DOCSIS) technology that can support symmetrical 10 Gb/s speeds to individual locations.

Hays said that the BEAD component will cause some network providers to “revisit their technology and design decisions to ensure that they future proof their networks from the start. That is good news for consumers and small businesses who are already in many cases struggling with user demands exceeding the capacity of their limited broadband speeds.”