The FCC in December raised the broadband speed target to 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. That re-definition of broadband will redraw the broadband map in the US. (It will knock out some ISPs that offer ADSL (version 1) and some older fixed wireless systems that were okay under the 4 Mbps definition.

The re-definition comes amid the commission's revision of the Connect America Fund (CAF) which is part of the rural broadband program, which is part of the USF program.

I understand why the speed increase - broadband is becoming pervasive in daily life - consumer and business. Homework or home schooling or other education (eLearning) is just one use that can be bandwidth intensive due to videos and websites that are massive. (Look at your average webpage today - with plug-ins, widgets, images, embeds, ads - it adds up to a lot of bandwidth utilization per page.) Cloud apps, Office 365, backup, DAAS, communications are all vehicles driving bandwidth usage - even before you get to entertainment (which gets blamed for a lot of the usage).

It will be interesting to see how 2015 ends with Broadband deployed under the new definition. I also wonder how many projects will be scrapped or incomplete due to the new definition. DSL at 10x1 is a different deployment than 6Mbx786k.