A report released on August 18, 2021, by BroadbandNow provides additional proof that the number of U.S. consumers with access to affordable broadband service is both vast and growing rapidly.
In "Evidence of Falling Broadband Prices Grows Despite Overall Spike in Inflation," a recent Perspectives from FSF Scholars, I compared USTelecom broadband pricing information to Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By contrast, and over the same time period, the latter demonstrated that the cost of other in-demand consumer goods – various food items, electricity, fuel oil, and gasoline – increased by an average of over 7 percent.
Free State Foundation President Randolph May and I highlighted similar data in May 2021's "Biden Broadband Plan: Claims That Broadband Is 'Too Expensive' Are Unfounded," a direct response to unsupported assertions contained in the American Jobs Plan Fact Sheet released by the White House at the end of March.
BroadbandNow's "The State of Broadband in America, Q2 2021," provides still more evidence that competitive marketplace forces are driving down prices at an impressive pace.
Specifically, the report finds that, as of the second quarter of this year, 87 percent of Americans were able to subscribe to "low-priced" high-speed Internet access service – that is, offerings priced at $60 per month or less – providing speeds that meet the FCC's definition of "broadband": 25 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream and 3 Mbps upstream.
Impressive in isolation, that figure reflects incredible and rapid progress: an increase of 10 percentage points from just three months prior (Q1 2021) and, amazingly, over 35 percentage points since Q1 2020.
The report also notes that the percentage of Americans with access to "low-priced" offerings at even faster speeds – 100 Mbps downstream and 25 Mbps upstream – grew by 11 percent over that same brief period of time.
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