The FCC May Redefine What Broadband Means

As more and more bandwith-hungry applications emerge recently, the FCC has decided to redefine what broadband means. Right now, a connection needs to achieve a download speed of at least 4 megabits per second for the FCC to consider it a broadband connection. However, in the new age of Internet, where everyone is streaming, downloading and playing games, 4Mbps doesn't really cut it, and that doesn't count going into the future with 4K from Netflix as one example.

For examle, Netflix HD streaming requires at least 5 Mbps, and that's if you're not using your connection for anything else. If you like watching a movie while video chatting or uploading pictures to Facebook, you're going to need nearly 10 Mbps to be happy.

That's why the agency may change the definition so only connections with download speeds over 10Mbps would count as broadband. It may even consider setting the proverbial bar as high as 25Mbps.

In addition, the FCC will also look to see if they should adopt a tiered set of definitions for different regions or for different parts of the day, where requirements may be harder to meet.

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