No goooooooooal

The FCC just released a new report setting speed standards for broadband to be considered "advanced telecommunications."

Of course, I skipped to paragraph 14, "Schools and Classrooms." They plan to keep the status quo, which is a short-term goal of 1 Gbps per 1,000 students, and no long-term goal. That short-term goal seems fine to me, but I think we should have a long-term goal. Long-term goals are important in generating long-term progress.

And the reason for not having a long-term goal is, in my view, spurious. They claim that the goal of 1 Gbps down / 500 Mbps up would not be technology-neutral (in particular, excluding wireless and satellite technologies).  It's true that wireless and satellite are not currently able to meet the upstream speed of 500 Mbps, but that doesn't mean the standard is not technology-neutral. You know what other technologies can't make that speed? DSL and ISDN (T-1s). Should we restrain the goals so that we don't leave those technologies behind? No. We push for higher speeds, and as some technologies prove unable to scale, they fall by the wayside. If wireless and satellite can't keep up with future needs, then we'll cease to use them.

How to set the long-term goal? I'd start by looking at how the short-term goal has evolved. I haven't looked at the data, but my guess is that we'll be multiplying bandwidth use 10 times over the course of 5 to 7 years. So let's say the long-term goal is 10 Gbps per 1,000 students by 2032. That goal is completely guesswork, but you know what? It's better than no goal.