The FCC shares…
FCC FACT SHEET*
Inquiry Concerning Deployment of Advanced Telecommunications Capability
to All Americans in a Reasonable and Timely Fashion
Nineteenth Section 706 Report Notice of Inquiry (2025), GN Docket No. 25-223
Background: Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires the FCC to annually conduct
an inquiry concerning the availability of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans, and to
determine whether such capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.
The Notice, if adopted, would initiate this inquiry and propose returning the Commission’s analysis
to the plain language of section 706, and doing so in a technologically neutral manner. The
Commission’s section 706 report must be issued within 180 days after release of the Notice.
What the Notice would do:
• Propose to singularly focus on the availability of advanced telecommunications capability as
measured through deployment.
• Propose to refocus the Commission’s inquiry on whether advanced telecommunications
capability “is being deployed,” (that is, incremental progress made in deployment) rather than
whether it already has been deployed, as was the focus of the 2024 Report.
• Solicit comment about whether the Commission should again use 100/20 Mbps as the benchmark
for defining advanced telecommunications capability for fixed broadband.
• Propose to abolish the long-term goal of 1,000/500 Mbps established in the 2024 Report as no
long-term goal is mentioned in the statute.
• Seek comment on whether to continue assessing mobile broadband services using multiple-speed
metrics and, if so, whether to continue focusing the main analysis on 5G-NR outdoor stationary
coverage at 35/3 Mbps speeds, or instead on 5G-NR in-vehicle mobile coverage at speeds of at
least 35/3 Mbps.
• Propose to continue using the previously established short-term goal of 1 Gbps per 1,000 students
and staff but to not establish a long-term goal, and seek comment on both proposals.
• Propose to again use the Broadband Data Collection as the primary data source for analyzing
fixed availability and seek comment on the proposal to do so.