Abolishing the 1,000/500Mbps long-term goal aligns with the plain language of section 706, which does not mention such a target. This change is suggested to prevent market bias towards certain technologies. Fiber networks can meet the standard, while the Biden administration favored fiber in grant distributions, contrasting with the previous administration's focus on non-fiber providers. The 100/20Mbps standard will continue to measure fixed broadband availability, but there is potential for reevaluation. The overall approach indicates a focus on reducing regulations rather than imposing new ones.
As part of our return to following the plain language of section 706, we propose to abolish without replacement the long-term goal of 1,000/500Mbps established in the 2024 Report. Not only is a long-term goal not mentioned in section 706, but maintaining such a goal risks skewing the market by unnecessarily potentially picking technological winners and losers.
Carr's proposal alleged that the 1,000/500Mbps long-term goal would appear to violate our obligation to conduct our analysis in a technologically neutral manner, as it may be unreasonably prejudicial to technologies such as satellite and fixed wireless that presently do not support such speeds.
We propose to again focus our service availability discussion on fixed broadband at speeds of 100/20Mbps and seek comment on this proposal.
If any regulatory changes are spurred by Carr's deployment inquiry, they would likely be to eliminate regulations instead of adding them. Carr has been pushing a 'Delete, Delete, Delete' initiative to eliminate rules that he considers unnecessary.
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