In "Biden Broadband Plan: Claims That Broadband Is 'Too Expensive' Are Unfounded," a May 7, 2021, Perspectives from FSF Scholars, Free State Foundation President Randolph J. May and I cited a number of sources, including USTelecom's 2020 Broadband Pricing Index, to demonstrate the efficient operation of the broadband marketplace. Prices are on a long downward trajectory, the number of competitors is growing, and service quality (including, but not limited to, speed) is improving.
On Thursday, USTelecom released the 2021 edition of its Broadband Pricing Index. It confirms that, even as the COVID-19 pandemic drove a dramatic spike in usage, between 2020 and 2021 prices continued to decline and speeds once again increased. In the words of USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter, "more Americans have cheaper and flat-out better broadband service choices than they did one year ago."
Key takeaways:
- In the past year the price of the most-popular broadband service tiers declined by an additional 7.5 percent (in constant 2015 dollars) after falling 20.2 percent between 2015 and 2020. When inflation is taken into account, those values increase to 9.3 percent and 28.1 percent, respectively.
- The price of the highest-speed tiers decreased an additional 2.3 percent last year after falling 37.7 percent between 2015 and 2020. Adjusted for inflation, those totals are 4.2 percent year-over-year and 43.9 percent during the prior five-year period.
- Download speeds for the most-popular tiers have risen by 126 percent since 2015, from 43 megabits per second (Mbps) to 98 Mbps.
- Download speeds for the highest-speed tiers have climbed from 141 Mbps in 2015 to 248 Mbps in 2021, an increase of 77 percent.
- Upload speeds have risen by even greater percentages over the same time period: 256 percent for the most-popular tiers (from 13 Mbps to 45 Mbps) and 98 percent for the highest-speed tiers (from 51 Mbps to 99 Mbps).
For purposes of comparison, the author of the report, Telcodata and Business Planning, Inc. founder Arthur Menko, notes that the cost of all U.S. consumer goods and services, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index, has increased 12.2 percent since 2015 and by 2.6 percent between March 2020 and March 2021.
The Perspectives referenced above is the third to date in an ongoing series of pieces highlighting flaws in the Biden Broadband Plan. I urge you to read "Biden Broadband Plan: Misdirected Broadband Subsidies Hurt Competition and Consumers" and "'Future Proofing' Subsidized Broadband Would Inflate Consumer Prices," as well.
In addition, "Biden Broadband Plan Favoring Government-Owned Networks Lacks a Constitutional Foundation," by Mr. May and Seth L. Cooper, Free State Foundation Director of Policy Studies and Senior Fellow, provides an insightful critique of the plan's stated preference for broadband networks owned and operated by local municipalities.
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