What Does 100/20 Mbps Mean? The FCC's Broadband Benchmark, Explained

When Americans talk about “broadband”, they are usually talking about a number: 100/20 Mbps. That is the Federal Communications Commission’s official benchmark — 100 megabits per second download, 20 megabits per second upload — and it decides which areas count as served, which count as unserved, and where billions in public money goes. Here is what it means.

Download vs upload

Internet speed is measured in megabits per second (Mbps) — how many millions of bits of data your connection can move each second. (Note: megabits, not megabytes. Eight megabits make one megabyte, so 100 Mbps is about 12.5 megabytes per second.)

• Download (the “100”) is data coming to you: streaming video, loading web pages, downloading files, game updates.
• Upload (the “20”) is data going out from you: video calls, sending large attachments, live-streaming, backing up photos to the cloud.

Connections are almost always asymmetric — downloads are faster than uploads — because households historically consumed far more than they produced. The ratio matters: a connection advertised as “100 Mbps” with only 3 Mbps up can choke on a household of remote workers on video calls.

What can you actually do with 100/20?

As a rough, practical guide, the FCC’s own Broadband Speed Guide puts a single Ultra HD 4K stream at 25 Mbps down, HD video conferencing at 6 Mbps down and online multiplayer gaming at 4 Mbps. By those figures, a 100/20 connection comfortably supports a household streaming 4K on two televisions while someone else is on a video call and another person is gaming online. These are rule-of-thumb figures, not guarantees — real-world speeds vary — but they show why 100/20 is not a luxury tier: it is roughly the level at which a modern multi-person household stops noticing the connection.

Why 100/20? A short history

The FCC is required by law (Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act) to judge each year whether “advanced telecommunications capability” is reaching all Americans, and that judgement needs a yardstick. From 2015 until 2024, the yardstick was 25/3 Mbps — a standard set when Netflix streaming was the heaviest thing most homes did.

In March 2024, the FCC quadrupled the benchmark to 100/20 Mbps, the first increase in nine years. It also set a long-term goal of 1 Gbps download / 500 Mbps upload (Engadget; SDxCentral). The reasoning: the pandemic had permanently raised household demand, most funding programmes were already building well above 25/3, and the 2021 infrastructure law itself defined “underserved” areas as those below 100/20. As then-Chair Jessica Rosenworcel put it when first proposing the change, the old standard hid how many rural and low-income users were “left behind and left offline.”

The benchmark still stands in 2026: an FCC fact sheet from April 2026 continues to reference 100/20 Mbps as the operative minimum for advanced telecommunications capability (FCC, DOC-421212A1).

Why it matters for funding

The benchmark is not just descriptive — it is the tripwire for public money:

• Areas below 25/3 count as unserved under BEAD and get first priority.
• Areas below 100/20 count as underserved and get second priority.
• Networks built with BEAD’s $42.45 billion must deliver at least 100/20 to every location they serve.

Set the bar higher, and more of the country qualifies for help — which is precisely why the benchmark is politically contested.

How close is America to meeting it?

Closer than it was, but not there yet. The FCC’s 2024 report found that fixed broadband at 100/20 (excluding satellite) had still not reached around 24 million Americans, including about 28% of rural residents and over 23% of people on Tribal lands (Engadget).

More recent data shows rapid progress. Ookla’s US broadband performance report for the first half of 2026 — published 15 September 2026 — found that 46 states plus DC now deliver 100/20 speeds to at least 60% of Speedtest users over wired connections, up from just 10 states in the first half of 2024. Only four states fell below that mark: Wisconsin, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska. Satellite is catching up too: in 17 states, at least half of Starlink speed tests now meet the 100/20 bar, up from zero states a year earlier (Ookla H1 2026).

The takeaway

100/20 is America’s line in the sand: fast enough for a modern household, and the minimum anything calling itself broadband — or built with federal broadband money — must clear. The next line, 1 Gbps/500 Mbps, is already drawn. The question is how long it takes to get there.

Sources: FCC 2024 Section 706 Report (PDF), FCC fact sheet, 29 April 2026, FCC Broadband Speed Guide, Ookla US Broadband Performance Report H1 2026, SDxCentral on the 2024 benchmark change.