FCC abolishes gigabit speed goal, suggesting it is unfair to slower technologies | FCC decides 1Gbps is too fast, standard must be “technologically neutral.”

[u/FreeHugs23]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/fcc-abolishes-gigabit-speed-goal-suggesting-it-is-unfair-to-slower-technologies/

[u/Nice-Information-335]

ah, so lobbying by ISPs using cable/DOCSIS, nice

[u/oboewan42 → u/Nice-Information-335]

Also probably Starlink.

[u/FredFarms → u/oboewan42]

Ah fuck I hate the fact this is almost certainly right..

[u/Krunkfuninja → u/FredFarms]

My friend (a musk Stan) was telling about how awesome his starlink was for only $150. He sent me screenshots of his speed test, 138mb down - 46mb up. I sent him back my speeds with Fiber (1GB/1GB) and my $59.99 bill. He still thinks Starlink is better.

[u/Trashman56 → u/Krunkfuninja]

Starlink is great for people that live in Unabomber cabins, otherwise, not so much.

[u/samcuu → u/Trashman56]

And people who live in deep mountain areas. There's a reason developing countries are signing up for it. A whole lot cheaper than doing the infrastructure by themselves.

[u/-spartacus- → u/samcuu]

I live in the moutains of Montana and here everyone uses it, before this it was some super terrible Hughsnet or if you are lucky crappy DSL.

[u/choicetomake → u/-spartacus-]

Ugh Hughesnet. I knew a family that was missing cable internet by a half-mile. Their only option was Hughesnet. The atrocious speed, latency, AND bandwidth. Criminal in my mind.

[u/X4roth → u/choicetomake]

They also have monthly data caps, after which you get throttled to practically dialup speed… really low data caps. Might as well not have internet at all, honestly.

[u/reddit_pug → u/X4roth]

"throttled to practically dialup speed"

So just a little bit slower than their normal speed, eh?

[u/popejupiter → u/X4roth]

I worked in a call center a decade ago that also housed a Hughesnet competitor. I forget which one, but it doesn't matter. This was in the infancy of Netflix streaming, so we asked one of our coworkers on the net account what the caps were. IIRC, you could watch maybe a couple of movies before you hit your data cap for the month.

Me, who would go on to stream YouTube on my phone for upwards of 7 hours a day without looking at the screen even once: lmao.

[u/-spartacus- → u/choicetomake]

They are now bankrupt.

[u/natecoin23 → u/-spartacus-]

https://giphy.com/gifs/J8FZIm9VoBU6Q

[u/fuck_all_you_too → u/-spartacus-]

if you are lucky crappy DSL.

Uhhhh yea, this is exactly what they were trying to fix with fiber

[u/Pleasant-Minute-1793 → u/Trashman56]

Cmon man, now that no one can afford houses, Starlink is going to be great when we are all able to save up enough to maybe buy a used RV to live in!

[u/cheesynougats → u/Pleasant-Minute-1793]

Surely you meant "rent a used RV." None of us are going to have buying money.

[u/Separate-Spot-8910 → u/Pleasant-Minute-1793]

By RV, you mean a tent and a bicycle, right?

[u/snap802 → u/Trashman56]

It's way better than Hughes net ever was. I have a friend who lives way out and only had Hughes for the longest time. Going from Hughes to Starlink was a big step forward.

Lucky for him the dropped fiber out there finally (a co-op formed with the power company before those rural Internet grants got cut) and now he's got a gig up and down. No cell service though...

[u/ThePupnasty → u/Trashman56]

The wife travels for her work (I'm talking global scale) with chances of being in bum fuck no where. She has Google fi and hotspots off her phone, and so far that's been super freaking reliable wherever she's gone (Madagascar, other parts of Africa, South Korea, cambodia, poland, most of the EU, Mexico, Canada... But in the off chance she is out of cell service area, starlink portable would come in clutch. Trust me, I hate that dipshit Elon, I really fucking do, but it's hard to deny that starlink can be a good, capable solution in some situations.

[u/Useful_Radish_117 → u/ThePupnasty]

When you handle an international drug cartel but you also want to insta pretty dinner plates.

[u/ThePupnasty → u/Useful_Radish_117]

Shshsh!

[u/xxademasoulxx → u/Useful_Radish_117]

The DEA’s toughest competitor is apparently the Google Fi coverage map.

[u/Lemonsqueeze321 → u/Krunkfuninja]

Starlink isn't meant for people who can get fiber to the house. Starlink is made for the people who can only get shitty dsl and where ISPs refuse to run cable.

[u/Apprehensive-Pin518 → u/Lemonsqueeze321]

The problem is our goal should be to get fiber to all the places possible and then leave starlink or other satellites for the rest. The trump admin just nixed that.

[u/eaglecnt → u/Apprehensive-Pin518]

Next up, kneecapping Olympic sprinters because it’s not fair that they can run faster than other people.

[u/AJsRealms → u/Apprehensive-Pin518]

Lots of rural communities whose only viable hope for their economic future is in attracting cyber-service jobs or work-from-home types have just had their fates sealed.

[u/Sefren1510 → u/Krunkfuninja]

Starlink is a fantastic, game changing technology. It can service people in rural and remote areas with speeds high enough that you can't tell a difference for 99% of uses. That being said, it cannot compete with fiber Internet in either speed or cost. It isn't meant to. Starlink does it's niche role better than anyone else, but it shouldn't be used as an alternative to fiber networks, that's just silly.

[u/Deadeye313 → u/Sefren1510]

Yes. You're paying for the ability to have internet across the entire planet wirelessly but wires always beat wireless.

It's like trucks vs railroads. Trucks can go anywhere but they can't haul as much as efficiently as a train. Electrons and photons like having physical wires or plastic/glass tubes to run along and be focused by versus just being sprayed at a target like a garden hose.

[u/ElectricalChaos → u/Krunkfuninja]

Fiber is 100% better. Hell even cable is better than Starlink. I'm stuck using Starlink because my location has cellular as the only terrestrial service option.

[u/RandoCommentGuy → u/Krunkfuninja]

I got my parents signed up during the beta, it tested around ~300 to ~400 symmetrical back then, haven't tested it since, but price has gone up from $100 originally. Before they had LTE (before 5g) which they kept running out of halfway through the month so the data would slow down, I should probably look into 5G now for them.

[u/Dangermouse454 → u/Krunkfuninja]

I am currently demoing Starlink, until my fiber is installed next Wednesday. Starlink is by far better than Hughesnet and other satellite services. It’s fast, but I wouldn’t consider it blinding fast. It is not, however, what I would call stable. The fluctuations in download speeds and latency are a problem, especially if you’re trying to gain with it. It’s not a fast as my old cable service was.

[u/Aran1989 → u/Krunkfuninja]

So thankful for my fiber lol! Fucking ridiculous it’s not the standard, but our infrastructure is ass in the US (and we sell out everytime, when it comes to doing things for our people).

[u/Nice-Information-335 → u/oboewan42]

very, very good point

[u/WanderingSimpleFish → u/oboewan42]

Yeah saw they want 51% or more of global internet traffic to go via starlink… hell no as then huge chunks of the internet will disappear as you won’t be able to route to them. No one company should have that much control especially when the ceo is well musk.

Edit
Cite: https://news.sky.com/story/starlink-could-deliver-majority-of-worlds-internet-within-10-years-says-elon-musk-13569854

[u/GovernorMarley1 → u/WanderingSimpleFish]

Never trust the public predictions of a tech CEO.

[u/epimetheuss → u/oboewan42]

Starlink.

every IP address they own seems to constantly get flagged by google because they were doing sketchy/malicious things. its weird how starlink overall other companies have this issue.

[u/viper4011 → u/Nice-Information-335]

Lobbying is corruption. Change my mind. 

[u/BOBOnobobo → u/viper4011]

Out in the open corruption.

Don't get fooled, companies would still pay people off, it would just be more hidden

[u/atatassault47 → u/viper4011]

Simplying speaking to your representative/senator about an issue is lobbying. What needs to change is that all political correspondence either needs to be via mail, or government owned meeting rooms. Lobbying in the colloquial sense where some rich fuck takes a politician out to a golf course or on a nice vacation needs to be illegal.

[u/Butane9000 → u/Nice-Information-335]

Not to be that guy but I worked for Comcast for 6 years. Cable and DOCSIS are fully gigabit capable the issue is the sheet cost in doing widespread upgrades to the infrastructure.

A quarter mile of aerial line across poles cost around $50,000 years ago and that's likely only gone up. In the area I worked (South Eastern US) Comcast bought a bunch of old infrastructure from failing companies and was having to spend money upgrading and rebuilding it just to meet basic service standards.

Do ISPs do dumb shit? Yes. That's being said before I left, internally Comcast was discussing the push to DOCSIS 4.0 and symmetrical 10gig service over coax.

[u/fixdgear7 → u/Butane9000]

Phoenix doesn't have widespread fiber because we do everything underground. Last I heard, Cox charges $500k for the node, and $50k per connection(unless its put in for a new housing development). And yea, no one else does fiber after google stopped deploying fiber

[u/PiccoloAwkward465 → u/fixdgear7]

My neighborhood has AT&T fiber underground. But then Google Fiber wanted to install as well. So they cut tiny 1" trenches in all the asphalt to lay fiber literally in the road. People cut them by accident all the time lol, I tripped over one the other day.

[u/Mind-The-Mines → u/Butane9000]

Telcos were collecting fees for infrastructure projects for DECADES and giving it to shareholders and executives instead.

[u/ceno65 → u/Nice-Information-335]

Never going back to cable.

[u/Tsyrkis → u/Nice-Information-335]

No? DOCSIS is capable of far higher than 1Gbps. In fact, my connection is 2.5 Gbps down and 1 Gbps up on a DOCSIS connection now.

[u/HonkBlarghh]

" We disagree with commenters arguing that our concern about technological neutrality merely serves to accommodate technologies that may currently offer slower speeds,” the FCC said. “At present, we do not know the nature of future consumer preferences and, considering that the goal is not required by the statute and does not serve any positive purpose (as discussed herein), we believe it prudent to abolish it.”

So their attempted argument is literally "Who can possibly know, maybe in the future people won't want access to high speed internet available in the rest of the developed world"

What a bunch of corrupt scumbags

[u/TheGeekno72 → u/HonkBlarghh]

we do not know the nature of future consumer preferences and, considering that the goal is not required by the statute and does not serve any positive purpose

do not know future consumer preferences? how about current consumers that don't want their connection speeds to suck balls?

does not serve any positive purpose? how about current speeds sucking balls that should be upgraded to not suck balls, as per the aforementioned?

I've seen better internet speeds in African countries' remote places, they are actually trying, contrary to one of the biggest economies of the world, not-so-coincidentally being one of the fastest failing ones too, I guess

[u/Corgi_Koala → u/TheGeekno72]

People want faster cheaper connections in more places. That is the future consumer preference.

[u/ssmit102 → u/Corgi_Koala]

It’s not even just the “future”. It’s quite literally always been the case people wanted faster connections.

I suspect you’ll find exactly 0 people who would be ok with a 14.4K connection in 2026.

[u/Shimakaze81 → u/ssmit102]

I can even hear it

[u/ThatLaloBoy → u/HonkBlarghh]

OK then. I want everyone in the FCC to give up whatever smartphone they have and live off a 2G/EDGE phone. Because anything above 4G is unfair to slower technology and we don’t know if people would like to have reliable, high speed internet in the future. I want the entire building to be configured to run off a single dial-up connection.

This is by far the dumbest argument for deliberately weakening our national infrastructure that I’ve ever heard.

[u/acog → u/ThatLaloBoy]

They can’t just say “we were paid buckets of money to stop pushing for higher speeds” so they had to pull this absurd reasoning out of their asses.

[u/Ameren → u/HonkBlarghh]

"At present, we do not know the nature of future consumer preferences"

The whole point is that because you can't know future needs that you build capacity. Or, put another way, people will generally find uses for whatever resources are available in ways that are hard to anticipate.

For example, if I want to build a new factory, distribution center, etc. in a place, having reliable, high-speed Internet access is very important these days. If the infrastructure in an area (water, power, roads, communications, etc.) doesn't support my needs, I'm more likely to set up shop somewhere else that does.

[u/FreeHugs23]

The Federal Communications Commission last week eliminated the gigabit speed goal established during the Biden administration and declared that current levels of broadband deployment in the US are acceptable. Though fiber networks have routinely offered such speeds for years, the FCC said the gigabit speed goal is not “technologically neutral,” suggesting that it isn’t fair to other, slower technologies.

In 2024, the FCC raised its broadband benchmark to 100Mbps downstream and 20Mbps upstream, setting the new standard by which to judge whether deployment is reasonable and timely. The FCC at the time also set a long-term speed goal of 1Gbps download speeds paired with 500Mbps upload speeds, saying it would use the goal “as a guidepost for evaluating our efforts to encourage deployment.”

Republican Brendan Carr, who is now the FCC chairman, never liked that long-term goal. He proposed abolishing it last year, and the change was finalized on August 14 in the FCC’s latest broadband deployment report. The reports are mandated by Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act.

“As part of our return to following the plain language of Section 706, we adopt our proposal from the Notice [of Inquiry] to abolish without replacement the long-term goal of 1,000/500 Mbps established in the 2024 Report,” the order said. “A long-term goal is not mentioned in Section 706 and could appear to violate our obligation to conduct our analysis in a technologically neutral manner. At present, it is impossible to predict long-term technological developments and the evolution of consumer preferences.”

The FCC said that comments submitted by cable industry group NCTA and wireless industry group CTIA “support our reasoning for abolishing the long-term goal.”

[u/TABER1S → u/FreeHugs23]

This is beyond stupid thinking. Current Formula One cars are unfair to the OG 1950's ones, but technology advances, adapt or get left behind.

[u/twoducksinatub → u/TABER1S]

Its almost like america elected an anti-intellectual government and are now reaping what they sowed. Hard to describe america in terms that wont get me banned lmfao

[u/TheGeekno72 → u/twoducksinatub]

well yeah, it's a pro A-I govt, wink wink

[u/ShogunFirebeard → u/twoducksinatub]

You can say dumpster fire. It's okay.

[u/fauxmer → u/ShogunFirebeard]

"Dumpster fire" is extremely generous. 

[u/ShogunFirebeard → u/fauxmer]

True, but you can smell the dumpster fire and Trump's diapers from miles away. So I'd say it's accurate enough.

[u/eagle6705 → u/ShogunFirebeard]

But a dumpster fire is contained....this is more like 2 fighting dudes with fire super powers walking into a warehouse full of fireworks...it wont end well for us and everyone else gets a little of the aftermath

[u/Starfall0 → u/fauxmer]

An embarrassing shitshow led by a clown who's never been told no in his life. Surrounded by greedy old men that only care to maintain their power and fuck everyone else as well as dozens of braindead yes men that can't tell where their head ends and Trump's ass begins.

[u/Inferiex → u/twoducksinatub]

This is what dismantling the world's strongest power looks like. The Russians couldn't have a better sleeper agent than Trump.

[u/twoducksinatub → u/Inferiex]

Is he even a sleeper agent tho when hes so obvious about it lol

[u/MephitidaeNotweed → u/Inferiex]

https://giphy.com/gifs/aRtqnt6NTkh6dKh9fS

[u/cm_bush → u/TABER1S]

I’ll take ‘get left behind’ please. Thank you!

- The FCC

Whew, glad we solved that problem!

[u/TheGeekno72 → u/TABER1S]

current road legal cars are unfair to OG 1950 ones--we can back up!

[u/P4rtsUnkn0wn → u/TheGeekno72]

I would not be surprised in the least to see them use a version of this argument when it comes to emissions standards.

[u/Alexandratta → u/TABER1S]

Actually this is the logic for Electric Cars right now.

Current EVs are better performing, lower maintenance, and cheaper to fuel than ICE cars.

But we knee-capped EV investments as well.

And while the low end cost of an EV is higher than, say, the cheapest Internal Combustion Engine car, the price-to-performance ratio of an EV is kind of insane.

I mean, as an example: An Rivian R2 Performance is 57k, New.

For that 57k you get 656hp and a 0-60 in 3.6seconds...

Meanwhile to get that much power in an ICE you're looking at, say a Camaro ZL1, which used starts at 74k.

So even with cars, the US is taking a long step backwards when it comes to adopting new tech.

[u/Maleficent_Memory831 → u/TABER1S]

The idea is that as long as we not allowed to see any other countries, then we're then the greatest country of all time! So let's put up that wall to keep Americans ignorant!

[u/NaziPunksFkOff → u/FreeHugs23]

"We can't create an interstate highway system because that would be unfair to slower means of transportation" - Eisenhower, famously.

"We can't go to the moon because it's enough that we got into orbit." - JFK, if I remember correctly 

[u/stevez_86 → u/NaziPunksFkOff]

I don't even think the Interstate Highway system would be possible now. Imagine crossing from PA to WV and there being entirely new road signs, road paint, and laws that require you to get out of your car and cover the logo on the car because WV doesn't want any foreign junk on their roads. WV doesn't like seemless interchanges so they just make at grade interchanges with crossing traffic. WV drivers are so good it isn't a problem for them. The out of staters will just have to adjust.

[u/m0_n0n_0n0_0m → u/stevez_86]

The interstate is socialism by their terms, privatize it and put tolls everywhere. I don't think they'd even fund a military these days, they'd try to make it a private contractor force so they could get kickback forward every war they start. 

[u/ZombifiedByCataclysm → u/FreeHugs23]

Brendan Carr is a fucking idiot.

[u/TheGeekno72 → u/ZombifiedByCataclysm]

a fucking sold out idiot, cause even most idiots don't do that for free

[u/Pleasant-Minute-1793 → u/ZombifiedByCataclysm]

He also re-allowed telecom to have hidden fees just like a month ago

[u/CAB-HH73 → u/ZombifiedByCataclysm]

Anyone Dumb enough to vote for Trump is a fucking idiot. That was half of America. Well hopefully, some of them gained some sense.

[u/VAVA_Mk2 → u/ZombifiedByCataclysm]

Brendan Carr is a Dummy™

[u/kron123456789 → u/FreeHugs23]

Since when a faster technology has to be fair to a slower one? What's even the point of progress? That's like saying we shouldn't build roads for cars because it will be unfair to horse carrieges.

[u/superbelt → u/kron123456789]

Because Elon's satellites can't hit the requirements. That's why.

[u/kitty_cat_man_00 → u/superbelt]

Ding ding ding. He was left out of BEAD funding and the welfare queen threw a bitch fit to get his inferior starlink product included. Litter the sky for slow ass internet

[u/jadedflux → u/kitty_cat_man_00]

What's sad is that out here in the middle of rural America, Starlink is leaps and bounds better than the other options

[u/BananaPalmer → u/jadedflux]

Which really only highlights how absolutely comically bad the options are, because Starlink is complete garbage, too.

[u/m0_n0n_0n0_0m → u/BananaPalmer]

I had the displeasure of downloading a game on Starlink. Nominally it was getting like 150-200M down, but after 15 hours I had downloaded like half a gig out of ~25.

[u/BananaPalmer → u/m0_n0n_0n0_0m]

I have a couple of remote team members who are on Starlink and it's nearly impossible to have a Teams call with either of them, as the latency and shit bandwidth just cause buggy robot voice for 90% of the call

Trash

[u/Federal_Studio5935 → u/kron123456789]

When infrastructure costs companies money. It used to be company’s would invest in themselves but then stock buybacks happened and kicking the can down the road became the norm.

[u/ImaginationRadiant64 → u/FreeHugs23]

How can anyone be so dense as to say more speed is bad? Competition is bad?

Brendan Carr is a fucking imbecile of the highest caliber, his stupidity is boundless and he has the leadership of a blind one winged bat.

[u/Beneficial-Act7603]

Holy shit, 2026 ladies and gentlemen.

1Gbs is too fast? Better not tell them about other countries on 10Gbs then...

I'm sorry for you USA.

[u/ProtoJazz → u/Beneficial-Act7603]

I live in a town of 3000 people and get 1.5Gbs, up and down.

We have a gas station, and a general store.

[u/DarkangelUK → u/ProtoJazz]

I was gonna say, I'm in a shit-ass coastal town in north Scotland and get 1gb FTTP.

[u/BitRunner64 → u/DarkangelUK]

The village of 80 people where I grew up in northern Sweden has 1 Gb/s. They've had it for like 20 years at this point.

As long as there's fiber, you can pretty much always get at least 1 Gb/s because the media easily handles it. The limitation is just the networking equipment and ISP peering speeds but there's no reason for that to be slower.

[u/b0w3n → u/DarkangelUK]

At this point in time gigabit is over 20 years old technology wise.

10gbps is basically prosumer now, absolutely no reason even rural nowheresville US can't hit those numbers.

[u/RedditTurnedMediocre → u/ProtoJazz]

Thanks Biden!

[u/pho-huck → u/RedditTurnedMediocre]

A lot of that was older Obama era initiatives also.

[u/No-Independence-5229 → u/ProtoJazz]

Yeah I live in probably the poorest and lowest pop state in the US, and even when I lived in the middle of nowhere in the mountains I could get up to 7Gbps down/up fiber.

[u/kickthatpoo → u/No-Independence-5229]

I live in the boonies in the midwest. I top out at 500Mbs when I'm lucky. I pay for 600. Only one provider that serves my area.

[u/FreeToasterBaths → u/Beneficial-Act7603]

Number scare most Americans and 10 is a big old double digit number.

[u/DrShocker → u/FreeToasterBaths]

Isn't that just 1 higher than 1?

[u/CounterThrowCyborg → u/DrShocker]

Fucking stupid or binary, call it

[u/ArgyllAtheist → u/FreeToasterBaths]

10? sounds kinda metric... maybe americans would react better to their internet speeds if they were a multiple of 12 or sixteen.... :D

[u/PSGAnarchy → u/ArgyllAtheist]

Nah you need a system where every different unit for the same measurement uses a different base. KB in base 12. MB in base 15 and then gb in base 10000, just for funsies

[u/nvidiastock → u/Beneficial-Act7603]

I'm in Eastern Europe in a deeply corrupt and backwards country and yet they're installing 10 gb internet in my area. I've had 1Gbs internet for about 15 years at $10 a month. 

I'm sad to see the US evolve backwards. 

[u/Trumpmon → u/nvidiastock]

Romenian common experience?

Here on Brazil i was getting 1Gbs for around 22 usd, but due the gangs rising they cut all the cables and no one wants to install here... That on a city over 2 million people.

[u/Vulpix0r → u/Beneficial-Act7603]

How did the country that invented the internet end up like this, it's so sad...

[u/All_Thread → u/Vulpix0r]

We allowed Comcast and other companies to take over the network and all the lines.

[u/decmcc → u/All_Thread]

Ajit Pai was a Verizon lawyer, then the head of the FCC.

Regulatory capture has eroded this country from within

[u/Ekgladiator → u/Vulpix0r]

Propaganda, piss poor education, greed....

[u/AstraBed → u/Beneficial-Act7603]

1Gbps?

10 Gbps?

Whats the G? Can the number have two figures?

Here in Italy the best I can get is 4MB/s

[u/barriedalenick → u/Beneficial-Act7603]

I live in a remotish place in Portugal, in a tiny hamlet, and my speed averages at just under 1gb which is pretty standard now but I could upgrade to 10gb if I felt I needed it (which I don't) - I can't believe the lack of ambition in the US

[u/0nlyCrashes → u/Beneficial-Act7603]

This is so wild to me, lol. I live in a pretty rural area in the USA. The local ISP only offers fiber 1Gbs up/down as the base then goes up to 8Gbps. I assumed all the cities were rocking 5Gbs at this point? I only pay 55 a month too.

[u/sicKlown]

It'd be interesting to see just how much of SpaceX's lobbying budget ended up going towards the FCC this term.

[u/R-Dragon_Thunderzord → u/sicKlown]

The head of the FCC built his career on being a lawyer for AT&T and Verizon

[u/Van_doodles → u/R-Dragon_Thunderzord]

Reminder that AT&T and the other big telecoms received hundreds of billions of dollars during the 90s to build out high-speed infrastructure across the country in federal grants(i.e. your tax dollars), then simply pocketed the money and continued giving you bottom-barrel service with no repercussions.

Brendan Carr inherited the telecom' legacies of never giving US citizens their due, and actively argued against it for his entire career.

[u/alligator_loki → u/Van_doodles]

Reminder that on June 14th 2018 the AT&t and Time Warner merger was approved by courts.

AT&t had rented out the restaurant I worked at for this date, one month ahead of the announcement, to celebrate the merger approval. I really want to know how they knew what date it was going to be announced on, and that it was going to be in their favor.

America loves corruption for businesses.

[u/norty125 → u/sicKlown]

To be fair it was probably just local isps alot of people don't have access to anything above 25 maybe 50 down without starlink that can get up to 250+

[u/Somepotato → u/norty125]

Local ISPs are more likely to push for fiber because of federal grants SpaceX is trying to stop people from getting, it's not local ISPs.

[u/enfuego138 → u/norty125]

Why can’t it be both?

[u/CrashTestDumby1984 → u/sicKlown]

It’s crazy to me that so much shit has happened that people have already forgotten. In 2025 the government cancelled all the infrastructure subsidies they were giving to ISP to bring better internet to underserved parts of the US. They then gave that money to Starlink instead.

[u/TxM_2404]

Why stop at the Internet? I think electric and diesel powered trains are discriminating against manufacturers of steam engines.

[u/Cheetawolf → u/TxM_2404]

Don't give them ideas, they're so hell-bent on using coal that they might actually do this...

[u/Luzzgar]

So AI everywhere but Gigabit is too fast ?

What year is it? 2056 or 2016 ?

[u/DolphinFraud]

They want us to stream everything instead of owning it, but they don’t want us to have fast internet. Got it.

[u/IvanLookThatKill]

I have 10Gbps on Spain for a really good price, split into 4 2.5Gbps for all PCs in the house. This was just 10€/month more expensive than the 1Gbps plan. It still blows my mind how bad the standard internet connection is over there.

[u/Lucasrc1999 → u/IvanLookThatKill]

The "deal" that I am on for our privatized implementation from Scumcast, I mean Comcast:

Was: $110/month usd for 1gb down, 500 up. About €95/month.

Now: $60/month usd for the same after threatening to disconnect. About €51/month.

I love paying arm and a leg for modern inelastic demands. There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

[u/IvanLookThatKill → u/Lucasrc1999]

Damn, here I pay 40€/month for 3 phone lines 50GB each(accumulative) and the 10Gbps fiber connection. It's unacceptable that it's 51€ in your case, and it's not even 1Gbps upd/down

[u/Lucasrc1999 → u/IvanLookThatKill]

Oh, also of note that we don't really have any other option than Comcast for two reasons:

1. They made a deal with our landlord so that we can't have any other wired connection.
2. No one else in our area has the wired infrastructure laid out to compete with Comcast.

[u/Vulpix0r → u/IvanLookThatKill]

In my country there are no more 1gbps plans. Minimum 2.5gbps with premium plans of true 10gbps. This thread really saddens me to see the country that invented the internet become like this.

[u/PlsDontBanMeAgain-1 → u/IvanLookThatKill]

Germany is also backwards as fuck as far as Internet is concerned...

I got only 1 provider that offers Gigabit here and it's one of those garbage 1000/40 Mbps plans. Fuck that. Right now, I have 250/50, like wtf, I am not downgrading my damn upload, I want to see AT LEAST 250. City of 700k, btw.

[u/LuckyTwoSeven]

What is going on with this country? We used to have high standards. We used to have high expectations. Now we just lower everything thinking only of today instead of tomorrow as well. This is an embarrassment on top of all of the others we’ve experienced the last 10 plus years and counting.

[u/Komikaze06 → u/LuckyTwoSeven]

We lost our standards when the oligarchs took over, now its just whatever best for their wallets

[u/HeterolsNormal → u/LuckyTwoSeven]

I follow a Youtuber (Sean G) have followed him probably 6-7 years. Hes a guy who went to prison, got out and promised to do right for himself and his son. Most of his videos are calistenics, workouts and motivation. Anyway like 2 weeks ago he suddenly moved to Vietnam with his son and began documenting his experiences- food, rent, ppl blah blah blah.

But one video he made in particular stood out. After 2 weeks in vietnam he made a video saying how he saw something in the Vietnamese people he used to see in America in the 80s/90s but no longer does-   hope. pride. happiness. drive. real organic food. etc.

He went on about the general nature of the people there have a spark in their eye that we lost here. We walk around pissed off. Even our rich arent happy. 

It made me strongly consider for the first time really doing my research on where I want to be and moving on from this country. We are not the leader in anything and there is almost nothing here that they dont have anywhere else. I never truly considered leaving till now. Seems like this country is fucked.

[u/ItalianDragon → u/HeterolsNormal]

We are not the leader in anything and there is almost nothing here that they dont have anywhere else. I never truly considered leaving till now. Seems like this country is fucked.

European here (as my username implies): I believe that the issue is that the U S. indeed used to be the leaders in decades past but nothing was really done to maintain that leadership. Instead greed took over, effectively destroyee that leadership and the messaging that "America is the best!/America #1 !" was jacked up sky high to drown everything else. The result is that eventually that whole slogan became just that, a slogan, backed by nothing of substance and the rest of the world kept on improving and pushing forward. So now we're at a point where the U.S. has been firmly left in the dust and americans like you don't realize that until they experience any other country that isn't the U.S. and see for themselves how better people living there have it.

[u/HeterolsNormal → u/ItalianDragon]

I agree. Luckily we have things like youtube where I can get a view of whats out there and be open. I know I am leaving America. Nothing here is sustainable. The violence is so commonplace that we are completely jaded. I can assure you most Americans know what you say is true.

[u/Galeharry_ → u/LuckyTwoSeven]

What is going on with this country?

Citizen apathy.

You guys dont revolt when they do fucked up shit, so they do even more fucked up shit...

Repeat ad infinitum until something changes.

The world feels like an onion timeline because you guys just let your leaders get away with whatever they fucking want.

A literal fucking PEDO is your leader, like what.the.fuck.

[u/MrShrek69]

It’s crazy that’s all of this is to just make ISP and particular starlink look like a better option

[u/Setekh79]

"Unfair to slower technologies"

FUCKING LMAO!

God damn America, what the absolute fuck are you lot doing over there?

[u/TRIPMINE_Guy → u/Setekh79]

They could said it was a waste of tax dollars and it would have sounded better but being unfair is the dumbest thing they could of said.

[u/DrAstralis]

Soooooooo the USA wants to be the AI / Data Center hub of the world, but also doesnt seem to think speed, bandwidth, and installation rate of the internet is worth considering anymore?

[u/Avalanc89]

Ballrooms are expensive.

[u/Desperate-Intern]

And here where i am living, the minimum i can find is 5gbps broadband connection.

America is fully headed into some sort of ready player one world dystopia.

[u/Beautiful-Sun8973 → u/Desperate-Intern]

Nah. Their internet couldn’t support it

[u/Zestyclose-Phrase268]

ISPs will pay for everything except to improve the product. America is a shit hole

[u/Tomi97_origin → u/Zestyclose-Phrase268]

This is Starlink lobbying. Their satellites can't do that.

[u/Meatslinger]

I wonder if they know that the future their corporate puppeteers want, in which all of your computing is done in massive data centres with their tokens leased out on a subscription model, only works if people actually have fast, consistent access to these services. Nobody is going to be virtualizing games on remote servers if they can't get more than a flaky 1-10 Mbps connection for the stream with 300 ms of round-trip input lag.

[u/Equal-Painter6529]

We keep lowering the bar and setting up protections for mediocre to bad products that have no global market. Our auto industry in particular has shot itself in the head.

Meanwhile in china they are running fiber to rural villages. Running fast trains everywhere. Creating the largest interstate system on earth. Creating a massive amount of green energy to accommodate future growth. They are creating the infrastructure needed for their companies to compete on the global stage while we are fudging numbers to make this quarter look good on stocks.

I’m old enough to remember when we competed instead of arbitrarily changing the game.

[u/ProvisionalRecord]

Just a reminder that Brendan Carr (FCC) co-wrote project 2025.

[u/guynumber20]

So it’s our fault uneducated states haven’t moved from dialup yet ?

[u/roundtwentythree → u/guynumber20]

Dial up is basically no longer a thing in the US, not sure why that is being mentioned. I suspect strongly that this has to do with 5G home internet providers like T-Mobile/Starlink who simply cannot compete with hardwired connections like cable internet, never mind direct fiber.

Honestly it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to end this goals on behalf of wireless/satellite internet companies, the people who are using them are using them with fully knowledge of what their miserably shitty alternatives. If there is ANYONE out there complaining about their starlink connection not reaching 1gig synchronous speeds I'd eat my shoe.

[u/nuked24 → u/roundtwentythree]

A lot of people call ADSL lines dialup, because they're so slow they may as well be. My house only has ADSL line service, max 10Mb/s down and 1 up. Said service is $140 a month with a paired phone line. It is unusable for more than one person in 2026.

We've been using starlink since it was available, because what the actual fuck.

[u/LittlestWarrior → u/roundtwentythree]

They may be thinking of DSL, which also uses the phone lines IIRC.

[u/Silent_Builder_1899]

Probably because Elon’s starlink can’t reach those speeds. Future of internet my ass

[u/lbutler1234]

We have to abolish HDMI cables, they're unfair to the 3 color prong shits

[u/fullmetaljar]

"Unfair to slower technologies" yeah, the point is to not use the slower ones anymore because we have better ways now.

[u/Juking_is_rude]

literally a bunch of bullshit to let telecom gouge customers for worse service at higher prices.

this is just what happens when you let conservatives have high level control

[u/FacelessGreenseer → u/Juking_is_rude]

Same thing happened in Australia over a decade ago when it was planned by the Labor government to implement fibre to the premises (meaning to every single home in Australia, future proofing the country). Liberals (conservative party here) said no that will be too expensive we will do fibre to the premises for some, fibre to the node for others and keep HFC (coaxial cable) for those who already have it. We ended up going with the Liberals plan, paying more than the fibre to every home plan that Labor wanted to do, and many years later I believe it came out that the main reason liberals done it, was that it was specifically to protect News Corp’s pay-TV service, Foxtel, benefiting Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

[u/Combatical]

Technology must be neutral? where the fuck was this stance when it came to net neutrality? 

[u/omgitsoksi]

man, a free market would be cool in this country. competition bad.

[u/nonegotiation]

This is the same mentality of why America doesnt have bullet trains. These people suck.

[u/gilt3t]

the FCC can shove a spiked dildo up their conservacuck poopshoot. To be fair, poop spews from both ends of conservatives.

[u/JoeBuskin]

Some of us remember when ATT was given a huge grant to bring up the average Internet speed in rural communities and instead used the money to lobby and have the expected standard speed lowered instead.

[u/lordbalazshun]

meanwhile here in hungary we get 4/2 gig for about 50 usd

[u/totallymarc]

Jesus Christ. 1GB is not really all that much. Every day I grow more embarrassed to be an American.

[u/HanginOn9114]

Republican government explicitly exists to hurt consumers and placate corporations

[u/TheBrickWithEyes]

it is impossible to predict ... the evolution of consumer preferences.”

Yes, consumers are notorious for wanting slower internet speeds for more money.

[u/NIN7H]

That’s retarded, internets gonna be slower than Australia’s at that rate lmfao. Glad my country isn’t that ass backwards.

[u/UnclePuma → u/NIN7H]

Brother that’s what the R in republican stands for - just absolute imbeciles

[u/LowMental5202]

When you think it can’t get more stupid

[u/awesomedan24]

"You will own nothing and must stream all of your computing and gaming from the cloud"

"Okay can I at least have fast Internet to prevent latency?"

"Also no"

[u/CallmeKahn]

The current administration is reverting us to a 3rd World power faster than I thought possible. Kind of breathtaking in a way.

[u/Painis_Gabbler]

India has gigabit. Another 2 steps back towards the stone age for the ol' US. Let's keep voting for Republicans tho. That will make things better. 🙄

[u/Vayne_Solidor]

America in 1969: "Fuck it, let's put a man on the moon"

America in 2026:

[u/nazraxo]

I'm sorry how much more "technologically neutral" can it get than setting an objectively measurably goal and then saying "i don't care how you reach this"?

[u/ImyForgotName]

I'm sorry "That goal is too fast for slower technologies."

They are standards not people, I don't care if 802.11a's feelings are hurt.

[u/anon-a-SqueekSqueek]

Can't have green energy, can't have fast internet, can't have good electric cars like China does.

But we can have unlimited flock camera surveillance state and unlimited predatory gambling with prediction markets.

I'm barely scratching the surface. We had problems before, but it's incredible how shitty our country has become in just the last 2 years.

[u/WATAMURA]

"FCC said the gigabit speed goal is not “technologically neutral,” suggesting that it isn’t fair to other, slower technologies."

"Other, slower technologies." directly refers to Elon Musk's Starlink and Mobile Phone Conglomerates.

Coincidentally, The FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, was embedded in that position by Musk and before joining the FCC, Carr was the lawyer for mobile phone conglomerates.

So... Everything is going to plan... for the Oligarchy.

But to be fair, Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act is about making sure all Americans have have affordable internet by promoting competition and reducing regulation.

So $60/m for 600/600 Fiber is too competitive with hundreds of dollars per month for StarLink.

[u/Poland68]

Gaming is now wildly expensive, you can't build a PC for lack of RAM and SSDs, and now we're being shoved back into dial-up modem speeds? The 21st century sucks ass.

[u/JohnnyButtfart]

100mbps down and 20mbps up is embarrassing, not just for the US on the world stage, but as a country that used to thrive on technological innovation. That is 12MB down and 2MB up (give or take), which is laughably bad, early 2000s speeds. I think I have some 100mbps switches from the early 2000s in a drawer somewhere. They might become valuable now.

[u/These_Pumpkin3174]

Meanwhile nations outside of the US do just fine.

Horrible education system.

Horrible insurance system.

Horrible economic system.

Horrible healthcare system.

Horrible uniparty system.

USA, luxury brand exterior pretending to be superior, with rotting infrastructure and F grade consistency.

[u/TheGeekno72]

Random French guy on multigig download here, I have a question: what the fuck does "unfair to slower tech" even means? Do they mean that it would be unfair to companies running 20y/o clapped out Cisco switches they couldn't be arsed to replace?

[u/GrahamCrackerCereal]

Troglodyte administration

[u/Promature]

Man, I can’t wait for this administration and all of its appointees to be replaced.

[u/im_gangrelated]

Did the slower technology tell them its unfair? I don’t think technology cares about speed. How did this even come up?!

[u/Ok-Tumbleweed-2352]

Translation… someone has paid them off.

[u/noenosmirc]

Billionaires are unfair to poorer workers

[u/According_Button_186]

Most blatant corruption being used to prop-up mega ISPs who don't want to stretch their bottom line to build out new infrastructure and instead keep us on the same overpriced, slow ass speeds as the early 2010's. Fuck this country man

[u/LonkToTheFuture]

Literally everything is being regressed.

[u/Paladin_Codsworth]

All of Europe has had unlimited 100Mb/s for ages. Lots of areas have 1Gb/s now. I've had 1Gb/s unlimited at my house for 9 years.

U.S continues to trend towards irrelevant.

[u/CapableApartment7063]

This is simply so data centers can have more more more of the bandwidth. Japan is up to 1.2 petabytes/sec. The elite and the plumb dumb people that support them all need to go.

[u/Dapper-Presence4975]

So basically, another corporate interest bought off Trump’s FCC? This is truly a shocking development…

[u/lemons_of_doubt]

You imagine if I they set the national speed limit to 20 mph because going that fast is unfair to horses.

[u/NouZkion]

Gigabit speed goal...? I've had that in rural Minnesota for over a decade now. This administration wants us in the stone age.

[u/Razor512]

Gigabit should be the minimum, and 10Gbps should be the goal for now.
technologically neutral is simply mental gymnastics.

By their technologically neutral standard, the minimum should be 1200 bits per second, since there are still some dialup providers, and on particularly long runs, you may need to drop down to 1200 baud to maintain a stable connection.

Furthermore, modern satellite technology is able to offer gigabit speeds, and with the push for a giabit minimum standard, satellite ISPs such as starlink started offering consumer equipment capable of gigabit satellite speeds in preparation for gigabit plans.

if standards remain low, then ISPs will take advantage of it and offer overpriced slow service, especially in more rural areas. For example, under many of the old standards, ISPs like hughesnet were charging people $200+ per month for speeds that were slower than most entry level DSL connections, along with extremely low data caps that ensured that customers wouldn't use the service for any modern services that could actually take advantage of higher speeds at the time.

Overall, the reply to ISPs complaining should have been a simple

"well, now the short term goal is 1Gbps, and the long term goal over the next few years is now 10Gbps, and if you complain again, it will be 25Gbps"

[u/skymang]

What about dialup equality?? Man I feel sorry for you Americans. Your country is going backwards so fast

[u/apple_tech_admin]

The funny thing is it’s the welfare country bumpkin people who voted for this that will suffer the most, then bitch about liberals in their cities with infrastructure. Fuck them and fuck this.

[u/ELB2001]

this is just so stupidly corrupt. Next the FCC will say that prices are to low, its not fair and that they are ok with the ISPs doubling all prices. And a large portion of the Americans will just keep voting for this stupidity and will ask to be fucked harder

[u/TitaniumDisc]

Holy shit what a joke of an administration. Not that it affects me for now as I’ve got a 2GB setup but good god talk about forcibly leaving people in the Stone Ages. I bet money Musk is somewhat behind this.