How fast is a broadband internet connection?

That question is at the heart of a controversy at the Federal Communications Commission. After a study about connection speeds in the US last year, the FCC decided that too few people had access to high speed internet.

But that conclusion never sat right with the commission's Republicans, who argued that the agency set too high a bar in deciding what counts as broadband. Now that the GOP is in the majority at the agency, the FCC is considering new guidelines for gauging the availability and competitiveness of high speed internet. There's no specific proposal yet, but based on their past statements there's a good chance those same commissioners will vote to lower it. That could affect how much funding is available to expand broadband networks into rural or low income areas.

The issue hasn't received as much attention as the debate over net neutrality, but Roberto Gallardo , a researcher at Purdue University's Center for Regional Development, worries that lower standards would reduce the motivation of broadband providers to expand service into rural communities, which already lag behind urban areas in both speed and availability of high speed internet.

If the FCC decides that rural areas and poor neighborhoods have adequate coverage, future funding for internet infrastructure upgrades could receive short shrift, says Harold Feld, a senior vice president of the digital-rights advocacy group Public Knowledge.

According to the FCC's 2016 report, about 39 percent of rural Americans lacked access to a 25 megabit-per-second internet connection, the agency's threshold for broadband and sufficient speed to support multiple people streaming video simultaneously. Urban dwellers were better off, with only 4 percent lacking access. But even in the cities, there wasn't much competition. Only 44 percent of urban residents lived someplace where they could choose between more than one provider that offered connection speeds of 25 mbps or faster.

By law, the FCC is required to regularly asses whether "advanced telecommunications" technologies are reaching the public quickly enough, and to take action if not. The Obama-era FCC interpreted this mandate to mean that it must promote the adoption of ever-faster internet speeds. In 2015, it changed its definition of broadband from 4 mbps to 25 mbps for downloads, citing bandwidth-hungry new technologies, such as 4K resolution television that could one day become the norm.

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, an industry group, opposed the changes, arguing in a letter to the FCC that 25 mbps wasn't necessary for streaming 4K TV and that the agency's evaluation should be built on current typical broadband usage, not expected future use.

Republican FCC commissioners Ajit Pai (now the chair of the agency) and Michael O'Rielly also opposed the change. O'Rielly argued that mobile internet could act as a viable substitute for home broadband. Both accused the FCC of setting the bar artificially high to justify government intervention into the broadband market. "The ultimate goal is to seize new, virtually limitless authority to regulate the broadband marketplace," Pai wrote in his objection to the FCC's decision to set the 25 mbps minimum.

Earlier this month, the FCC took the first steps toward changing the agency's standards by publishing what's called a "notice of proposed rule making." The document suggests a minimum standard of 10 mbps for mobile broadband, for which there's now no standard, and asks whether the 25 mbps minimum for home broadband should be lowered and whether communities served by either mobile or home broadband should be considered adequately served. The public has until September 7 to file comments.