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The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is engaged in activities to protect the right to freedom of speech in the digital society, is calling for the establishment of an optical fiber infrastructure nationwide by establishing standards for download speeds of 100 Mbps and upload speeds of 100 Mbps or higher on the Internet for the national broadband plan promoted by the Biden administration. made a suggestion
Although the demand for internet has increased rapidly through the COVID-19 pandemic, high-speed internet has not spread to 23% of the US population. Under this circumstance, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Budget Act, also known as the Covid Relief Act, passed by Congress in December 2020 will not only inject $3.2 billion into Internet services for the poor, but also the Biden administration announced in April 2021. The American Jobs Plan also announced that it would invest $100 billion in the nation’s total broadband, which provides broadband Internet to the entire nation.
Such public funding is expected to lead to the formation of a nationwide broadband network in the United States. For this broadband network, the Electronic Frontier Foundation suggested that the download speed be 100 Mbps and the upload speed 100 Mbps or higher.
The core of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s argument is that the current draft standards of 100Mbps for downlink and 20Mbps for uplink can be realized by Internet service providers such as Comcast with existing cables, and considering that new cables will have to be laid in the future after continuing to use existing cables. will be.
From the 1980s to the present, Internet bandwidth used by consumers has continued to grow at an annual rate of 21%. According to OpenVault, a broadband network company, the average bandwidth used by consumers as of 2021 is 207 Mbps down and 16 Mbps up. If the annual growth rate of 21% is applied to this value, it is calculated that the bandwidth required per user in 2026 is 500Mbps downlink and 40Mbps upstream. The growth rate is accelerating due to the expansion of remote learning and remote work demand following the corona epidemic, and OpenVault is reporting a 63% increase in bandwidth usage from December 2019 to December 2020. The line speed of up to 20 Mbps can be expected to be insufficient in the long run.
As a solution to this problem, what the Electronic Frontier Foundation suggests is to replace it with optical fibers. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, fiber optics can achieve line speeds of 100Mbps downlink and 100Mbps uplink, as well as easy to replace hardware and can achieve up to 1,000Mbps or 10,000Mbps in both uplink and downlink. Therefore, the Electronic Frontier Foundation claims that optical fiber can withstand the growth of long-term bandwidth usage.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that replacement with optical fibers will serve the national interest in the long term, and that China has been pursuing a policy of replacing optical fibers since 2013, warning that the United States will lag behind at this rate. Related information can be found here.
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