An FCC task force investigated the disparity between advertised and actual broadband speeds and found that there's a 50 to 80 percent lag between what consumers get and what they're told they're getting.
Joel Kelsey of the Consumers Union advocacy group called on the Federal Trade Commission to take a more active role in enforcing truth in advertising among ISPs.
"This speaks to consumer empowerment, and if you are advertising one speed but delivering another, that takes power away," Kelsey said. "Consumers can't make accurate decisions based on quality of service from one provider off another."
The FCC also calculated how much it would cost to bring U.S. broadband infrastructure up to speed with the rest of the world: between $20 billion and $350 billion.
There's also an imbalance among Internet users and traffic load.
"About 1 percent of users drive 20 percent of traffic, while 20 percent of users drive up to 80 percent of traffic," the FCC said.
Various studies have tried to rank broadband speed worldwide. The results vary, but typically the United States ranks far lower than other industrialized nations, while Japan, Hong Kong and Canada lead the pack.
