Report Shows Big Boost in Broadband Speeds for Consumers in 2022

The "OpenVault Broadband Insights" (OVBI) report for the third quarter of 2022 has just been released. It analyzes data on broadband speeds and traffic volumes compared to earlier time periods as well as usage patterns by consumers. Overall, the OVBI report shows that broadband speeds experienced by American consumers have risen sharply over the last 12 months.

This OVBI report insight is astonishing: "subscribers’ self-selection and service providers' automatic upgrades have resulted in increases of as much as 100% in key speed metrics." Indeed, one of the most interesting set of figures contained in the report concerns consumer adoption of different speed tiers. As found in the report: 

• The 1+ Gbps speed tier rose to 15.4% of all subscribers, up more than 35% compared to a year earlier;
• The 200 Mbps-400 Mbps speed tier rose to 54.8% of all subscribers, doubling in size from a year earlier;
• The less-than-50 Mbps speed tier shrank to 4.7%, down over 50% from a year earlier.

Additionally, the OVBI report includes an insightful "snapshot of the average U.S. broadband household." According to the report, for the third quarter of 2022, average download/upload speeds for U.S. households was 347.8 Mbps/23.5 Mbps. And the average upload/download consumption was 463.9 GB/31.6. Among other things, the OVBI report also examines usage among Affordable Connectivity Plan (ACP) plan participants, high-volume "power users," and usage-based billing plan subscribers. The OVBI report can be found at OpenVault's website. 

 

These positive metrics regarding American consumers' broadband experience that are identified in the OVBI report for the third quarter of 2022 are a happy result of the strongly competitive and investment-friendly environment for broadband Internet services that has prevailed under the FCC's light-touch policy framework. Free State Foundation President, Senior Fellow Andrew Long, and I reiterated the importance of the existing market-oriented policy toward broadband in our July 2022 comments to the Commission for its forthcoming 2022 Communications Marketplace Report.