Calls for Symmetrical Broadband Definition Likely to Have Cable Foes

DSL, satellite and many fixed wireless options likely would join cable in being outside the 100 Mbps symmetrical definition, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson said. But the FCC isn't likely to itself embrace a definition that excludes wide swaths of providers, though the threat of doing so "could be a good way to goad companies" into boosting their upload speeds, he said. The commission didn't comment. Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel voiced interest in upping the definition of broadband and incorporating symmetry (see 2103300070), while Commissioner Brendan Carr is opposed (see 2103300052). A House Commerce Committee hearing last month on the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow's America Act (HR-1848), which includes a 100 Mbps symmetrical redefinition of broadband, also showed party line schisms (see 2103220063).

Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) President Gary Bolton said broadband isn't a partisan issue, but there could be Republican concerns about overbuilding and costs, which "can all be addressed." Dane Jasper, CEO of California’s Sonic broadband fiber company, said municipal broadband issues in the White House infrastructure plan could create partisan waves.

Cable's hybrid fiber/coaxial cable network "can definitely handle fast upload speeds," and the industry is working on its 10G offering, which will offer multi-gigabit upstream and downstream speeds using fiber/coax, an NCTA spokesperson said. He said internet traffic remains asymmetrical, and networks "are engineered to meet consumer demands and needs and not artificial standards that don’t reflect actual usage." NCTA President Michael Powell blogged earlier this month that a 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband requirement "is fundamentally inferior because that doesn't reflect actual consumer usage of the internet, which has been wildly asymmetrical. Insisting that providers dedicate resources to such a standard sacrifices much more ambitious targets like multi-gigabit networks where downstream and upstream speeds are right sized to real world uses."

Charter didn't comment. Comcast cited a Technology Policy Institute blog post critical of such a broadband definition (see 2103290047) and said its 2020 network performance report shows that traffic patterns remaining highly asymmetrical, with downstream traffic volume significantly higher than upstream.

Pushback to 100 Mbps symmetrical would come "because their technology can't do it," said FBA's Bolton. He said President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan is focusing on "future-proof long-term solutions. Should we limit ourselves to what we can do today?" He said the cable industry use of its DOCSIS standard to boost upload speeds "is like a roll of duct tape," allowing "milking" of coax capacity longer.

CableLabs Vice President-Wired Technologies Curtis Knittle said cable operators using DOCSIS 3.1 now can support 1 Gb downstream, and there are nodes of operation and architecture that will support 1 Gb upstream. Those splits to upstream spectrum require infrastructure work, such as changes to amplifiers and nodes. With 300,000 to 500,000 fiber nodes in the U.S. and two to 10 amplifiers for each, such upgrades are "a big deal" financially and operationally, he said.

Some larger cable operators have been converting to high-split DOCSIS 3.1, which would support faster upload speeds "for quite a while," and such architecture will be increasingly prevalent among cable operators in the future, Knittle said. High-split DOCSIS 3.1 would support 1 Gb symmetrical operations, but DOCSIS 4.0 can support muti-gigabit symmetry, he said. Upgrading to 4.0 would again require intensive infrastructure work, he said.

Subsidy dollars should go to future-proof infrastructure, but there's never going to be a need for true symmetry, Jasper said. There has been growth in upstream content creation and a "huge increase" in upstream demand, but there will always be a divide between downstream needs and upstream, he said. "Asymmetry isn't inherently bad," he said.

Cable operators might be able to tackle the symmetry issue, though when they upgraded to DOCSIS 3.1, most didn't take advantage of the upgrade to boost their upload capacity because they didn't see a need then, CCG's Dawson said. He said that the past year, with the pandemic driving more upload utilization, would have been a good time to do so, as surveys showed consumer discontent with upload speeds that have trouble supporting remote work and schooling at the same time. He said many providers are likely hoping the end of the pandemic will also mean the end of such complaints.

Dawson said that beyond cable and fiber, other technologies will have much more difficulty keeping up with future redefinitions of broadband. Sonic's Jasper said cable operators "might have trouble in the near term" meeting 100 Mbps symmetrical, though they will point to DOCSIS 4.0 and 10G as on the way. However, DOCSIS 4.0 gear isn't available and would be an expensive upgrade for cable operators, Dawson said.

The definition issue ultimately is about technologies getting subsidy funding, said Jasper. “You will see defenders of asymmetric performance saying 'X is good enough,'" he said. "That's about ‘I would like money to build X.'" Jasper said that while a 100 Mbps symmetrical definition tries to steer subsidies to "future-proof infrastructure" while being tech neutral, instead of networks that will need to be revisited again and again, "I don't think it will work," and cable will end up being subsidized for DOCSIS upgrades.

Some see a growing need for symmetry.

Tennessee fiber network company EPB's broadband service being symmetrical typically falls below the threshold of awareness for many customers, though the company promotes it, said Vice President-Marketing J.Ed. Marston. It can be a recruitment tool for getting businesses to the Chattanooga area, he said. He said upstream capacity will be increasingly important with the growing number of connected devices per household and for such applications as videoconferencing. He said it also likely will become more common as a commercial offering.

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told C-SPAN's The Communicators last month that with demands on networks increasing and broadband providers anticipating the gap between download and upload consumption narrowing, "we know this incredible demand is coming at us. We ought to build for that."