According to a November 3 report, HighSpeedInternet.com's Internet speed test shows a national average Internet download speed in 2023 of 171.3 Mbps. This figure is up 44% compared to 2022, when the average speed was 119.03 Mbps. And this is significantly faster than the reported 2020 national average of 42.86 Mbps.
HighSpeedInternet.com's findings go to show that broadband Internet speeds continue to improve and benefit consumers across the country. Momentous and continuous rises in network speeds have taken place without public utility regulation. Despite doomsday predictions of the end of the Internet as we know it leading up to the repeal of the FCC's 2015 Title II Order, broadband services have flourished under the light-touch Title I regulatory framework for broadband Internet access services that was established by the 2018 Restoring Internet Freedom Order. The completely failed predictions that Internet blockages and slowdowns follow the repeal of public utility regulation ought to be remembered now that the Commission has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to re-impose such regulation. It also ought to be remembered that there is no solid evidence of ISPs blocking, throttling, or unfairly harming consumers' access to lawful Internet content following the repeal of the Title II Order.
To be sure, there are inherent limits to the usefulness of an annual national download speed average, as HighSpeedInternet.com's median download speed finding for 2023 was 90.96 Mbps, and the variations across regions, networks, and technologies are innumerable. But the HighSpeedInternet.com's reports provide a consistent base line and indicator of the heavy private investment-backed progress that is being made in Internet connectivity to benefit consumers. Re-imposing Title II will threaten the conditions for continued strong investment and risk undoing this ongoing progress. The FCC should reject Title II reclassification and stay with the pro-market, pro-investment, pro-innovation policy under Title I.
For recent publications by Free State Foundation Scholars recommending against the FCC re-imposing public utility regulation on broadband Internet access services, see FSF Board of Academic Advisors member Daniel Lyons' Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "Refreshing the Record on Net Neutrality," and FSF President Randolph May's Perspectives, "Let Us Not Raise a Ruckus Over Net Neutrality."
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