• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, December 9, 2010

The vast majority of Web connections in the U.S. don't transmit content at speeds fast enough to meet the Federal Communications Commission's new definition of broadband, according to a report issued this week.

The FCC's "Internet Access Services" report says that 68% of the 133 million Web connections in the U.S. transmit material at speeds of less than 3 mbps downstream and 768 kbps upstream. Even those rates, while a bump up from the FCC's previous definition of broadband as 200 kbps in both directions, remain relatively sluggish. That's especially the case when you consider that observers, including outgoing Congress member Rick Boucher (D-Va.), recently urged the FCC to endorse speed goals of at least 50 mbps downstream and 20 upstream.

In the most controversial section of the new paper, the FCC examines competition among broadband providers but, according to some advocates, overstates the number of realistic options available to consumers.

For instance, the FCC says that around half of U.S. residents, 48%, live within census tracts that are served by at least three high-speed Internet access providers. But S. Derek Turner, research director at advocacy group Free Press, says that providing data about the overall number of providers misleads people. What would be more useful, he says, is data about the providers' market share. That's because some ISPs only offer services to a small proportion of residents within the tract; therefore, many of the area's residents don't actually have three or more ISPs to choose from.