So far, it's unclear how the FCC plans to get to 100M bps, said Benjamin Lennett a policy analyst with the Open Technology Initiative with the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank. Broadband fiber deployments could get to 100M bps, but copper- and wireless-based broadband services don't have that capacity, he said. Cable broadband's DOCSIS 3.0 standard has the capability to achieve that speed, but cable subscribers share local loops and speeds depend on neighbors' broadband use, he said.

"It will take a substantial upgrade of the existing broadband infrastructure to accomplish this goal," Lennett said. "The reality is it's going to take a massive build-out of FTTH [fiber-to-the-home] or FTTN [fiber-to-the-node] to get there."

The unanswered question so far is, who pays for it? "In nations where FTTH or FTTN is widespread, it has been some combination of government assistance and robust competition that has driven the upgrades and deployments of broadband infrastructure," Lennett said.

Mobile carriers and mobile trade group CTIA have talked in recent months about a looming shortage of wireless spectrum, as U.S. residents expect more and more online services to work well on wireless networks. CTIA has praised the FCC for recognizing the need for more spectrum.