USTelecom Report: Broadband Value Proposition Steadily Improves

Released on Monday, the 2024 edition of USTelecom's annual report on the competitive broadband marketplace tells a familiar tale of falling prices and rising speeds.

Authored by Business Planning, Inc.'s Arthur Menko, "2024 Broadband Pricing Index: Broadband Prices Continue to Decline As Consumers Choose Faster Speeds" (2024 BPI) reveals that, accounting for inflation, the price of the most popular broadband speed tiers ("BPI-Speed") decreased by 9.4 percent between 2023 and 2024 while the price of faster tiers – that is, those at or near gigabit download speeds ("PBI-Gigabit") – fell by 3.9 percent.

Compared to 2015, BPI-Speed inflation-adjusted prices are 59.9 percent lower. BPI-Gigabit inflation-adjusted prices, meanwhile, have decreased 43 percent since 2017. Of course, context is key – and a look at broader economic trends only underscores the increasing affordability of broadband:

• In real dollars, the per-Mbps price of BPI-Speed offerings has fallen by 81.2 percent since 2015 – and as the overall cost of consumer goods and services grew by 32.2 percent, the nominal price of BPI-Speed offerings fell by 41 percent.
• In real dollars, the per-Mbps price of BPI-Gigabit offerings has fallen by 43 percent since 2017 – and as the overall cost of consumer goods and services grew by 27.5 percent, the nominal price of BPI-Gigabit offerings fell by 21.4 percent.

While prices are shrinking, speeds are accelerating. In terms of downloads, BPI-Speed offerings are more than twice as fast as in 2015: 301 Mbps versus 141 Mbps. Upload speeds similarly have increased, from 51 Mbps to 96 Mbps.

Free State Foundation scholars have summarized every BPI report released by USTelecom. Posts to the FSF Blog addressing previous versions are available here: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020.