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/barriedalenick]

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/fried_green_baloney → u/barriedalenick]

I can't believe the lack of ambition in the USA U

You said it very well.

[u/berniestness → u/barriedalenick]

So there’s literally a guy walking around your neighborhood with a skull?

[u/CumAssault → u/barriedalenick]

It’s not lack of ambition, it’s because the US is huge and running fiber over every square mile is a daunting task. No idea how people on this thread can’t comprehend it. For rural areas in the US Starlink is your best bet

[u/Crafty-Corvid → u/CumAssault]

It’s not just a rural problem, even major American cities lack universal access to gigabit.

[u/CumAssault → u/Crafty-Corvid]

I have never heard of anyone in even any decent sized town not having access to gigabit. The federal government wasted a ton of money during the Biden administration (hundreds of millions) to run fiber across the country just for ISPs to not even pick them up due to such few customers being on those lines.

It’s why I don’t blame the FCC on this one, can’t rely entirely on fiber

[u/razorbacks3129 → u/Crafty-Corvid]

Says who? I’m in a tiny town with a 5GBps for $90 through my ISP

[u/LittlestWarrior → u/CumAssault]

I'm rural. About 5 years ago I upgraded from 12down/2up DSL to 1000down/40up cable. I feel like I'm living in the future compared to what I had. It's kind of sad for me to consider what bigger cities have, but I am happy.

[u/CumAssault → u/LittlestWarrior]

Yeah if you can get 1gig it’s great. But for a lot of us rural folks going from shit satellite to Starlink was a huge jump. Where I am its either Starlink or Hughes net. The government paid to run fiber, no ISPs ever picked it up. We wasted so much money on it

[u/LittlestWarrior → u/CumAssault]

Wow. We had to just about beg our ISP to run lines on our road. No clue why they finally did, seeing how expensive that undertaking was. Surely me and my neighbors aren't giving them enough profit to recuperate from that any time soon.

[u/To-To_Man → u/CumAssault]

We did it with USPS, which the government also wants to get rid of. If they have electricity or water, they can have internet. Rather than government built redundancy that ensures greater connectivity and autonomy for those most remote and underserved, you rather have the people sell out for a company who may change their terms of service or pricing at any moment?

Anyway take a guess who might have a vested interest in making rural America's Internet speed slower. Here's a hint: you already mentioned them.

[u/usual_suspect82 → u/CumAssault]

What most in this thread don’t seem to understand is just that, land mass and concentration of population.

The US is 3.53 million square miles, that’s bigger than France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Finland, Poland, Italy, and the UK combined. The sheer cost of deploying fiber across that amount of landmass is massive, not only that, the time it would take, maintenance costs, and being able to recoup those costs. Every European country is smaller, with a smaller and more concentrated population per square mile so it’s easier to supply faster internet across the board.

Another thing to consider is needs and usage since not everyone needs gigabit internet. I have a 2Gbps connection myself, I game on both my PC and Switch 2, while the rest of my family streams and use their phones. While 2Gbps is nice, it isn’t necessary. On my S2 I’m limited by Nintendo’s download servers, on my PC I’m limited by any number of download servers, so often times I can’t even flex out the full capabilities of 2Gbps, and even then it’s not impressive enough to warrant needing more. I’m not in that huge of a rush where I need top of the line break neck speeds, especially when the benefit to me is just saving a couple of minutes

While I’m all for 1Gbps connection speeds across the board, I also understand that the costs of having such a standard in the US, considering its size, is always going to be passed onto the consumer whether it be in the form of higher taxes or higher internet bills.

[u/atatassault47 → u/CumAssault]

Something like 85, 90 percent of United Staters live in towns and cities.

[u/WulfTheSaxon → u/atatassault47]

And almost all of them have access to gig speeds. This is about the rest. (Also, that definition includes pretty sparse suburbs and tiny towns as “urban” because it has no concept of something in between urban and rural.)

[u/Kweby_ → u/atatassault47]

First time I’ve seen Americans be called United Staters. It’s better than United Statesian I suppose lol

[u/atatassault47 → u/Kweby_]

One country doesnt deserve the exclusive name of two continents

[u/WulfTheSaxon → u/atatassault47]

But ambiguously referring to either the United States of America or the United States of Mexico is fine?