Digital Divide: “FCC’s 2020 Broadband Report Touts Progress, But Analysts Say Agency ‘Failed America'”

From State Scoop:

The Federal Communications Commission’s 2020 Broadband Deployment report claims there are fewer than 18 million Americans living in areas that lack access to broadband. But Democratic FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and independent broadband experts called that number into question and lambasted the accuracy of the report’s analysis after its release on Friday afternoon. Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr, meanwhile, took it as a sign that broadband deployment’s “momentum” is “unmistakable.”

The report claims that just 5.4 percent of people nationally lack access to fixed broadband that meets the FCC’s definition of 25 megabits per second download speed and 3 Mbps upload, which represents a 0.9 percent increase over its 2019 report. The data included in Friday’s report also measured broadband access in rural parts of the country, which rose to 77.7 percent, a 4.1 percent increase between 2017 and 2018. Carr, one of three Republicans on the five-person commission, also pointed out that the number of people serviced by more than two broadband providers increasing 52 percent between 2016 and 2018 is a promising figure.

Read the Complete Article

Direct to Full Text: 2020 FCC Broadband Deployment Report
54 pages; PDF.

Direct to News Release
2 pages; PDF.

Statements From FCC Commissioners

• O’Rielly Statement
• Carr Statement
• Rosenworcel Statement
• Starks Statement

Filed under: Data Files, News