FCC officially decides gigabit speeds are too good for you

美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）正式裁定：千兆网速对你们来说太奢侈了

Another day, another sad thing to report about our compromised Federal Communications Commission. Chairman Brendan Carr has followed through on his 2025 threat to kill long-term broadband speed goals established during the Biden administration, which aimed for eventually getting us to gigabit download and half-gigabit upload speeds. How dare we dream of spreading great download and upload speeds across the country!

又是一天，又有一件关于我们那支离破碎的联邦通信委员会（FCC）的糟心事要报道。主席布伦丹·卡尔（Brendan Carr）已经兑现了他在2025年发出的威胁，废除了拜登政府时期制定的长期宽带速度目标——该目标旨在最终实现千兆下载和半千兆上传速度。我们竟然敢梦想在全国范围内普及高速下载和上传，真是胆大包天！

It’s wild that 13 years after Comcast said Americans don’t need gigabit internet we’re somehow back in this conversation. Especially since the private sector has delivered, albeit unevenly, on super high speeds in certain areas; For example, the apartment I’m about to move into offers 5 gigabit synchronous internet speed which will require a new PCIe network card to handle. Those speeds are ludicrous, but why are we not aiming for the moon across the country?

令人难以置信的是，在康卡斯特（Comcast）声称美国人不需要千兆互联网的13年后，我们竟然又回到了这个话题。尤其是考虑到私营部门已经在某些地区实现了超高速网络（尽管分布不均）；例如，我即将搬入的公寓提供5千兆的同步网速，这甚至需要一张新的PCIe网卡才能处理。这些速度简直荒谬，但为什么我们不在全国范围内追求更高的目标呢？

It took years for the FCC to finally admit publicly that the outdated 25Mbps definition of “broadband” speed sucked. Remember Ajit Pai, the guy with the giant Reese’s mug who killed net neutrality? He once said we didn’t need more than that. (The standard was raised from 25/3 to 100/20 in 2024.) Pai’s successor Brendan Carr — who is far worse in almost every category — is repeating the same stuff but in an even more cynical way. Here’s part of what the FCC says about its decision to abandon the gigabit speed goal:

FCC花了多年时间才终于公开承认，那过时的25Mbps“宽带”速度定义简直烂透了。还记得那个拿着巨大瑞茜（Reese’s）马克杯、扼杀了网络中立性的阿吉特·派（Ajit Pai）吗？他曾说我们不需要超过这个速度。（该标准在2024年从25/3提升到了100/20。）派的继任者布伦丹·卡尔——他在几乎所有方面都更糟糕——正在以一种更加愤世嫉俗的方式重复同样的事情。以下是FCC关于放弃千兆速度目标的部分说辞：

At present, it is impossible to predict long-term technological developments and the evolution of consumer preferences.

“目前，无法预测长期的技术发展和消费者偏好的演变。”

This is one of the least-impossible things to predict. Who would possibly choose for things to be slower if they could be faster? This is peak regulatory arrogance from an administration that is generally not shy about lying through its teeth to the public.

这简直是世界上最容易预测的事情之一。如果能更快，谁会选择更慢呢？这是一个政府部门监管傲慢的巅峰表现，而这个政府通常并不介意对公众撒谎。

But, no worries. The abandonment of the gigabit goal is wrapped inside a broader broadband report that claims everything is just fine! The FCC says speeds are up, competition is up, and prices are down. Too bad, as Ars Technica notes, that some of these insights are sourced from industry lobby groups and no adverse research from advocacy groups.

不过，别担心。放弃千兆目标的决定被包裹在一份更广泛的宽带报告中，该报告声称一切都好得很！FCC表示网速提升了、竞争加剧了、价格下降了。遗憾的是，正如《Ars Technica》所指出的，其中一些见解来源于行业游说团体，而没有任何来自倡导团体的反面研究。

Why is the FCC doing this? Who knows, but here’s a solid guess: the FCC has been further captured by industry interests that would love for their pet projects (like satellite internet) not to look bad when compared to high standards. Just how much has the FCC been captured? Incidentally, The Guardian reported just today that Brendan Carr has been exceptionally cozy with the White House and right-wing media. It’s an easy bet to make that killing the broadband goal has nothing to do with public interests.

FCC为什么要这么做？谁知道呢，但这里有一个合理的猜测：FCC已经进一步被行业利益所俘获，这些行业利益方非常希望他们的“宠儿”项目（如卫星互联网）在与高标准对比时不会显得太差。FCC被俘获的程度有多深？顺便提一下，《卫报》今天刚刚报道称，布伦丹·卡尔与白宫和右翼媒体的关系异常亲密。可以肯定的是，废除宽带目标与公共利益毫无关系。