On January 5, the FCC released its Eleventh Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report. The Commission's report provides evidence of the strong performances of fixed broadband Internet service providers (ISPs) amidst government lockdowns, as consumers have upgraded to higher speed tiers and benefitted from the improved capabilities of cable and fiber broadband networks.
The Eleventh Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report provides a snapshot of the performance of eleven ISPs during the months of September and October 2020. Significantly, the FCC's report found a significant rise in advertised broadband speeds: "The weighted average advertised speed of the participating ISPs was 193.9 Mbps, representing an increase of 33% from the previous year's Tenth Report and over 43% from the Ninth Report." This metric is noteworthy in light of the report's finding that "[f]or most of the major broadband providers that were tested, measured download speeds were 100% or better than advertised speeds during the peak hours (7 p.m. to 11 p.m. local time)." Indeed, all five cable broadband ISPs tested in the report delivered downstream and upstream speeds in excess of what they advertised. Taken together, median download speeds for those cable ISPs averaged 114% of their advertised speeds, and their upload speeds averaged 111%.
(Chart 2: Weighted average advertised download speed among the top 80% service tiers based on technology – FCC, Eleventh Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report (2021))
The FCC's report also tested the consistency of fixed broadband speeds, and the results were favorable:
Customers of Charter, Comcast, Cox, Mediacom, Optimum, Frontier Fiber, and Verizon, for example, experienced median download speeds that were very consistent; i.e., they provided greater than 95% of the advertised speed during peak usage period to more than 80% of panelists for more than 80% of the time. In particular, Charter, Comcast, Cox and Mediacom provided 100% or greater than their advertised speed during the peak usage period to more than 80% of their panelists for more than 80% of the time.
Not surprisingly, the FCC's report observed that fiber broadband services had the lowest latency and lowest packet loss among the different fixed network technologies, and cable broadband services also were superior to DSL in those performance categories.
According to the FCC's report, "a large number of subscribers, between 30% to 60%, migrated to a higher speed tier using a different technology from what they had in September-October 2019. This is in sharp contrast to the previous year when only 1% to 8% of subscribers migrated to a different technology." Quite reasonably, the report suggested that the notable migration of consumers to higher download speed tiers and to faster technologies was related to the COVID crisis: "[B]y the time the validated data collection period for this Report was underway, approximately 42% of the U.S. workforce was working remotely from their homes. Similarly, 93% of households reported some form of remote learning and distance education during this time period." The report offered a positive verdict: "Despite all the challenges, the MBA measurements showed that for the most part, the ISP networks were able to keep up with this unprecedented increased load on their networks."
The benefits for consumers identified in the FCC's Eleventh Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report should serve as reminders of the importance of the Commission maintaining a light-touch regulatory policy that fosters strong private sector investment in next-generation network infrastructure. As pointed out in Free State Foundation comments to the Commission and in Perspectives from FSF Scholars papers – including FSF Senior Fellow Andrew Long's paper "Lessons From the FCC's Broadband Deployment Report" and my paper "The FCC Should Reaffirm Its Successful Internet Freedom Policy" – the Title I status of broadband Internet services has encouraged the heavy investment in fixed and mobile network facilities that is necessary to enable broadband networks to supply growing consumer demands. In 2022, the Commission should stick to this pro-investment and pro-consumer broadband policy.
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