16 million Americans have no wired broadband access, not even at 4Mbps

(credit: Marcelo Graciolli)

Internet service providers and Republicans in Congress have been criticizing the Federal Communications Commission for a report that declares broadband service isn't being deployed quickly enough to all Americans.

In particular, ISPs and Republicans are mad that the FCC is defining "broadband" as Internet speeds of at least 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. Using that benchmark, the FCC found that 34 million Americans, about 10 percent of the country, live in areas where they can't buy home broadband.

ISPs wanted the FCC to stick with its old standard of 4Mbps down and 1Mbps up, which the commission left behind a year ago. But even if the FCC revived that slower definition of broadband, the commission's annual reports would still find that many Americans lack access, mostly in rural areas.

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