The federal government’s definition of high-speed broadband has remained stagnant over the last six years, sitting at 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up since 2015. But faced with pandemic-fueled network loads and a new push for infrastructure spending, lawmakers are getting ready to upgrade that definition. In a letter to government leaders Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators called for a quadrupling of base high-speed broadband delivery speeds making 100Mbps down and 100Mbps up the new base for high-speed broadband.

“Ask any senior who connects with their physician via telemedicine, any farmer hoping to unlock the benefits of precision agriculture, or any student who receives livestreamed instruction, or any family where both parents telework and multiple children are remote learning, and they will tell you that many networks fail to come close to ‘high speed’ in the year 2021,” the senators wrote.

“Going forward, we should make every effort to spend limited federal dollars on broadband networks capable of providing sufficient download and upload speeds and quality,” Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Angus King (I-ME), and Rob Portman (R-OH) wrote to the FCC and other agencies. “There is no reason federal funding to rural areas should not support the type of speeds used by households in typical well-served urban and suburban areas.”

In surprise vote, Montana House Republicans (and incumbent companies) kill Democratic municipal broadband proposal. “(Providers) just do not show up in those small towns”

“(Providers) just do not show up in those small towns,” “We’re trying to show the people of Montana that we’re trying … but we’re getting thwarted at every turn.”

Montana’s Regulations Rated Worst in the U.S. for Internet Infrastructure Deployment Process – 50th in the nation — for broadband internet access – Federal Permitting Process Slows Rural Broadband Expansion

As state lawmakers begin to consider changes, R Street’s annual broadband scorecard offers a comparative look at every state’s existing laws and highlights areas for improvement.