Under the Telecom Act of 1996, the FCC is required to routinely assess whether broadband is "being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion," and take action if it isn’t. Part of that effort involves periodically updating the standard definition of “broadband” to ensure it meets technological advancements and consumer expectations.

For example, in early 2015 the FCC voted to upgrade the standard definition of broadband from a paltry 4 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up—to a more respectable 25 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up.

At the time, giant ISP executives, lobbyists, and numerous, ISP-loyal Senators whined incessantly about the changes. Commissioner Ajit Pai (who hadn’t yet been promoted to agency head) was quick to vote against the effort, joining alongside cable lobbying organizations who lamented the changes as “unrealistic and arbitrary.”

Why were the nation’s broadband monopolies so upset? Because the faster standard not only highlighted the painful lack of competition at faster speeds, but the fact that many telcos had neglected network upgrades at any real scale. As a result, millions of Americans only have access to sluggish, over-priced DSL lines that can’t even technically be called broadband.

With the FCC preparing its latest report of the state of broadband in the States, the focus has shifted once again to whether the current definition of broadband is currently fast enough. Especially on the upstream side of the aisle, where 3 Mbps is starting to look notably last-generation in the face of symmetrical, gigabit connections.

And once again, Ajit Pai is hoping to keep the broadband definition bar set at ankle height.