The FCC has made 25 Mbps (megabits per second) the de facto standard for high-speed broadband, which is also the commission's calculated minimum download speed for 4K video.

But that is despite some calls for it to bump up that minimum tied, in part, to the rise in video streaming that will likely only grow as broadband access devices become the new home video monitor of choice.

The FCC defines minimum speeds as that needed for "adequate performance" for the relevant application, based on one activity at a time, so if there are multiple video streamers concurrently, the need for speed increases significantly.

Recently, the FCC ruled that streaming video can be considered a substitute for standard cable services when it comes to determining effective video competition in a market, so having sufficient speeds will be important to driving that competition and maintaining that competitive profile.

The FCC says OTT video fits all of the definitions of a competitive video provider for purposes of the effective competition trigger — comparable services, offered direct to home. The item says a provider does not have to have its own facilities to be a comparable video service, one of the sticky wickets in the debate over whether and how to regulate video streaming.

"Adopting this order [is] a major step toward the Commission recognizing the realities of the modern video marketplace, and the increasingly important role that streaming services are playing in it," FCC chairman Ajit Pai said of the decision.

As cable operators move their standard distribution model to internet video delivery, they don't want the FCC to move program access and program carriage rules along with them. The FCC's conclusion that AT&T Now qualifies as a cable competitor raises the issue of just how the FCC should define OTT services beyond that effective competition, and the specter of subjecting them to the same regulatory regime, such as program-access and program-carriage rules, something cable operators definitely don't want.

And while the FCC has chosen not to raise its high-speed definition in the most recent annual report on advanced communications service deployment, it has gotten some pushback from broadband advocacy groups, including citing the need for speed of video services.

In comments on that report, the Benton Foundation said that given that broadband providers themselves have suggested 100 Mbps service for streaming video content, "the commission's benchmark should reflect this."

Given that the average household has multiple TV sets, if streaming, and broadband access devices, becomes the new go-to video--and stats suggest the TV set number is dropping as the number of streaming devices rises--broadband speeds will need to keep pace to ensure that OTT remains a competitive substitute for traditional cable, at least while traditional cable lasts.

Broadband operators don't see it that way. In arguing that the FCC should not raise its benchmark for reasonable and timely broadband deployment, NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, told the agency two weeks ago that 25/3 can accommodate “critical functions on multiple devices,” including video streaming. It suggests the FCC could even lower its speed threshold for broadband availability and that even lower speeds can handle streaming, particularly in the 60% of households with only one or two residents.

While cable calls streaming a critical function, the FCC doesn't actually list video streaming in the "advantages of broadband" section of its online "Getting Broadband" Q&A, which include distance learning and telemedicine and VoIP and online shopping. That is even though its OTT competition decision presumes that streaming video is a competitive alternative sufficient to justify deregulating cable rates.

When contacted about the absence of streaming video in the broadband advantages section, a spokesperson thanked Next TV for flagging the omission and said it was being added. 

Video does feature prominently among the FCC's "rough guidelines" for what speed is needed for various applications (below), as well as a chart (see below) showing what level of service is likely needed for running a mix of multiple applications (light, moderate and high household use).

Sullivan, Missouri-based operator Fidelity Communications said it is upgrading the broadband speeds of around 19,000 customers to 50 Mbps at no additional charge.

These customers, spread across Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, were previously experiencing speeds of between 1.5 Mbps to 25 Mbps.

Fidelity is calling this a “one-year initiative.”

“At the end of 2017, Fidelity saw the growing need for more bandwidth within the home for our current customers,” said the operator’s president, John Colbert, in a statement. “While these customers have had the opportunity to upgrade to speeds of 50 Mbps and above for several years now, we believe the proactive move for those who have not adopted the new speeds will ensure a superior experience to their ever-growing connected lives.”

Fidelity’s entry level 50 Mbps plan sells for $44.99 a month, with 100 Mbps going for $69.99 and 250 Mbps for $79.99. 

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has told the FCC that it should not up its Sec. 706 report definition of broadband to 25 Mbps downstream/3 Mbps upstream.  And that if it does, the commission should make it clear that it has no regulatory "significance" outside that report.

NCTA's put forth its positions in filing with the FCC in advance of its planned vote later this month on the report and its proposed new speed definition.

"The Commission should be particularly careful to clarify that it is not endeavoring to define a distinct product market for broadband services meeting the speed benchmark," it said.

One concern is that the new speed benchmark could be used against Comcast in the Time Warner Cable merger review since it would give the combined company a greater percentage of subs since the have a greater percentage of high-speed subs.

The association says that even limited to the 706 report, the definition does not cut it, either legally or factually. It points out that the definition of advanced telecommunications capability" in the report is "“high-speed, switched, broadband telecommunications capability that enables users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications using any technology,” and says those are supportable at well below the 25 Mbps level.

NCTA also says that defining broadband in the report as only services 25 Mbps/3 Mbps and higher would breed complexity and confusion in other contexts, like network neutrality.

It says the commission's plan to impose network neutrality regs on ISP service regardless of whether or not they are delivering at least 25 Mbps "[calls] into question the relevance of any new definition of "broadband."

Congress directed the FCC in Sec. 706 to report on the timely deployment of advanced service to All Americans, and said it could take a number of regulatory actions if it found it was not being timely deployed. The FCC has concluded a lack of timeliness in the past several reports under Democratic chairmen, much to the dismay of cable ISPs investing billions and reaching all but a small fraction of the population with service.

The higher the speed definition in the report, the smaller the number of customers show up as having broadband, and thus the continued authority to regulate in the name of universal deployment if, as the FCC has interpreted it, the requirement won't be satisfied until "All Americans" have broadband.

The FCC's most recent Sec. 706 definition is 4 Mbps/1 Mpbs, but the commission had signaled last year that it wanted to up that downstream definition to at least 10 Mbps, and is now looking at 25 Mbps, citing all the demands of apps and the Internet of things and high-definition

If you live in a Verizon FiOS market, you’ve likely seen the video ads denouncing upstream speeds other than theirs. If not, here’s the gist of it: Families, at home, surfing the Web but running into slowdowns when posting music and video. The tagline? “Stop living with half-fast Internet,” voiced by Modern Family’s famously funny Ty Burrell, a Verizon spokesman.

On the one hand, “half-fast” is a brilliant and funny play on words, not unlike Kmart’s “shipped its pants” campaign, or the lesser known but still funny pairing of “sofa” with “king,” to emphasize how very … anything … something is. (“That is sofa king good.”)

As someone who perennially frets about the state of the upstream/home-to-head-end signal direction, on the other hand, it’s another reminder about the growing plausibility of symmetrical network traffic — meaning an environment where as much stuff flows out of a home as flows into it.

For the longest time, now included, we’ve not really had a need for symmetry. Think about it. When you click to retrieve a Web page or to initiate a video stream, that click is tiny compared to what comes back. In general, and at any given time, we’re using way more downstream capacity.

For me, the first vestige of the potential for upstream capacity calamities came last spring, when my colleague Sara set up a chicken incubator at her farm. She used a paper clip to kickstand an old iPhone, which live-streamed the incubation action.

It was a forehead-smack moment: Video is big. Webcams stream it. Uh-oh, upstream path. Cameras that stream become part of the machine-to-machine scene, consuming bandwidth in ways not before seen.

Then, this year, the GoPro camera craze intensified. It won’t take too many of them, strapped to the dog’s head, or the kid’s bike, to gum up the upstream path.

The bandwidth-keepers in my circles assure me (repeatedly) that from a normal traffic- loading perspective, we’re nowhere near the need to build for network symmetry — or as much data moving away from you as toward you.

That said, there’s no shortage of gadgetry in our lives that can capture and stream video, especially those that can be triggered to run remotely — you’re at work, but someone rings the doorbell at home. Who is it? See for yourself, via a live video stream.

One thing is certain: We can expect more video running upstream, coincident with the webcams and GoPros we use. That alone will contribute to a tilt toward symmetry.

As a result, the widening of the upstream path will likely go from “not in my lifetime” — the decades-old answer among technologists — to lots more trial expansions next year.

Stumped by gibberish? Visit Leslie Ellis at translation-please.com or multichannel.com/blog.