Ookla Releases Updating Ranking of U.S. Fixed Broadband Provider Services

On July 17, Ookla released its U.S. Market Report for the second quarter of 2023, which ranks mobile and fixed broadband providers according to speeds and other service criteria. According to Ookla's Speedtest Intelligence® performance metrics, for Q2 of this year, Charter's Spectrum cable broadband service had the highest median download speed among fixed providers, at 243.02 Mbps. In a July 17 article, FierceTelecom reported that this is an increase from Q1, when Spectrum's median download speeds were 234.8 Mbps. For Q2, Cox ranked close second in median download speeds at 241.78 Mbps, Comcast's Xfinity was third with 233.25 Mbps and AT&T Internet was fourth with 210.12 Mbps. AT&T and Frontier were the two fixed providers for upload speeds, at 166.86 Mbps and 164.84, respectively. Ookla's Market Report also ranks U.S. fixed providers based on latency, consistency, and video. The report includes regional comparisons as well.

Certainly, the numbers shown in Ookla's Market Report are an improvement over figures cited in the FCC's 2022 Communications Marketplace Report as well as in my January 2023 Perspectives from FSF Scholars paper that reviewed the Commission's report. Continuing steady increases in fixed broadband speeds are predicated on strong network investment as well as network innovation. Ongoing and near-future rollouts of fiber and 10G cable broadband enabled by private market investment and innovation also will significantly boost upload and download speeds, latency, capacity, reliability, and security. To ensure further improvements in broadband network performance, the FCC should maintain its federal market-oriented policy towards broadband Internet access services that defines them as lightly-regulated "information services."

Charter Announces Big Plan for Deploying Ultra-Fast 10G Broadband

According to news reports, Charter Communications is now implementing a three-year "10G" broadband network upgrade plan that will significantly expand multi-gig broadband service availability and enhance the market's competitiveness. The reported goal of Charter's plan is to make 5 Gbps download speeds available to 85% of its geographic footprint and to make 10 Gbps download speeds available for its top tier service. Charter will be upgrading its existing coaxial cable broadband network by implementing DOCSIS 4.0 technology. And it is reported that Charter will spend $10.65 in total capital expenditures next year, with $6.5 to $6.8 billion allocated for its network upgrade. 

The unveiling of Charter's "10G" plan follows Comcast's announcement of its own 10G deployment plan earlier this fall – as discussed in my September 9 blog post.

 

Cable broadband provider's "10G" platform is a competitor to high-speed fiber broadband networks. Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long has written about the potential of cable's next-generation networks in his September 2020 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "'10 G' Can Help Future-Proof Broadband Infrastructure" as well as in his October 2020 blog post, "Study Predicts that Cable '10G' Platform Will Generate Substantial Economic Benefits." Also, it is worth noting that cable networks are themselves fiber-laden. According to public comments filed by NCTA for the FCC's forthcoming 2022 Communications Marketplace Report, high-speed cable broadband networks "contain 550,000 route miles of fiber-optic cable. Using these fiber-rich facilities, data traveling to or from a cable customer is using fiber for 98-99% of the route." 

 

Notably, Charter is reported to also have a plan to expand its geographic footprint in 2023 and beyond. It is reported that Charter is reaching an additional 1 million new locations, backed by funding from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. And Charter apparently has won grants from states for passing another 160,000 locations, with other potential grant awards soon to follow through programs such as the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Act (BEAD) Program. For these rural buildouts, Charter reportedly is increasing its capital expenditures over prior years.

 

These significate private network investments – albeit supplemented by subsidies – will help reach unserved and underserved areas. Congress, the NTIA, and the FCC ought to continue promoting a pro-innovation, pro-investment, market-oriented environment by avoiding unnecessary new network management regulation, seeking ways to remove or encourage removal of local barriers to construction of new and upgraded infrastructure, as well as by conducting close and coordinated oversight of the many broadband subsidy programs to ensure that dollars are targeted to truly unserved and underserved areas in American. 

Comcast Announces Nationwide Rollout of Ultra-Fast 10G Services

On September 8, Comcast made a major public announcement of its plans to commence a nationwide rollout of multi-gigabit cable broadband Internet services. Comcast's next-generation broadband services will combine its 10G and DOCSIS 4.0 technologies with Wi-Fi 6E.

According its announcement, Comcast will offer speeds of up to 2 Gbps to homes and businesses in 34 cities and towns by the end of this year. Comcast plans to make these services available to more than 50 million homes and businesses by the end of 2025. And soon it will significantly boost both upload and download speeds, as Comcast stated it would begin offering 10G-enabled multi-gig symmetrical services in 2023. 

 

For U.S. consumers, Comcast's announcement portends the realization of the much-anticipated, high-speed, and high-capacity cable 10G platform, which will offer a stiff competition to fiber broadband services and fixed wireless access (FWA) services. (As an aside, NCTA observed in comments to the FCC in July of this year that cable broadband networks also rely on fiber-rich facilities, as cable customers use fiber for about 98-99% of the data transmission route). And a tremendous upshot for Comcast as well as for cable broadband subscribers is that the 10G upgrades do not require extensive digging or construction in and around households that it already reaches. 

 

Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long has helpfully written in more detail about the tremendous potential service capabilities and economic value that will be generated by cable 10G networks. See Mr. Long's September 2020 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "'10 G' Can Help Future-Proof Broadband Infrastructure" and his October 2020 blog post, "Study Predicts that Cable '10G' Platform Will Generate Substantial Economic Benefits." Importantly, and as Comcast's announcement indicated, 10G will be combined with ultra-fast and capacious Wi-Fi 6E capabilities. Mr. Long has excellently described Wi-Fi 6E capabilities in his February 2020 Perspectives "Wi-Fi 6E Can Modernize Unlicensed Wireless" and his January 2022 blog post, "D.C. Circuit Decision Clears the Way for a Wave of Wi-Fi 6E Devices."

D.C. Circuit Decision Clears the Way for a Wave of Wi-Fi 6E Devices

As Free State Foundation Director of Policies Studies and Senior Fellow Seth Cooper explained in his post to this blog yesterday, the FCC's just-released Eleventh Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report confirms that high-speed Internet access speeds continue to rise dramatically.

As they do, the Wi-Fi networks that consumers rely upon to connect their devices to broadband service likewise must evolve, lest they serve as a bottleneck. Wi-Fi 6, the latest iteration of the ubiquitous wireless networking standard, can deliver that crucial complementary capacity – but requires large swaths of relatively unencumbered spectrum to do so.

In 2020, the FCC delivered, opening up the 6 GHz band to flexible unlicensed use. On the heels of a D.C. Circuit decision largely affirming the Commission's bold action, both consumer electronics manufacturers and Internet service providers (ISPs) are making available "Wi-Fi 6E" devices able to make full use of the increased speeds made possible by 5G, cable 10G, fiber, and other next-generation broadband distribution technologies.

As I explained in "Wi-Fi 6E Can Modernize Unlicensed Wireless," a February 2020 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, the "Wi-Fi 6E" label distinguishes Wi-Fi 6 devices able to operate in the 6 GHz band from those relegated to the relatively congested 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

Why is that distinction so important? The contiguous 1200 MHz of spectrum the FCC made available in the 6 GHz band makes possible the wider (160 MHz) channels required to maximize the full potential of the Wi-Fi 6 technical specification.

On December 28, 2021, the D.C. Circuit largely rejected challenges to the FCC's 6 GHz Order. For additional information, please see Free State Foundation Legal Fellow Andrew Magloughlin's post to the FSF Blog summarizing the court's decision in AT&T Services, Inc. v. FCC.

In a press release, Free State Foundation President Randolph May applauded the D.C. Circuit's recognition of "the considerable degree of deference to be accorded the FCC regarding technical spectrum management matters" and, in particular, its appreciation of the technical implications of the agency's "harmful interference" standard.

In that decision's wake, Wi-Fi 6E devices are proliferating.

The 2022 Consumer Electronics Show is underway, and companies including Netgear and TP-Link have utilized that high-profile platform to unveil new Wi-Fi 6E devices. Netgear's Nighthawk WiFi 6E Router provides speeds up to 10.8 gigabits per second (Gbps) and the low latency (lag) that hard-core gamers, among others, crave.

Meanwhile, TP-Link's Archer AXE200 Omni AXE11000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6E Router utilizes mechanically rotating robotic antennas to deliver speeds up to 11Gbps:

Source: TP-Link's website.

In addition, ISPs are beginning to roll out Wi-Fi 6E-compatible routers directly to their subscribers. On January 3, 2022, Comcast announced that the new version of its xFi Advanced Gateway supports Wi-Fi 6E – and thus is the "first to support the speeds of the future – symmetrical Gigabit speeds" that the cable 10G platform promises to deliver.

In December 2021, Verizon also revealed a new router able to operate in the 6 GHz band. Notably, while the device is compatible with both its FiOS fiber-based offering and Verizon 5G Home Internet service, the company is providing it to subscribers of the latter first.

Delivering average download speeds that average 300 Mbps and peak at 940 Mbps, Verizon's robust fixed wireless broadband offering leaves no doubt that fixed 5G is a viable alternative to traditional home Internet service options. And Verizon's decision to prioritize the deployment of its Wi-Fi 6E router to its fixed 5G customers underscores the extent to which these two wireless distribution technologies complement one another.

Study Predicts that Cable "10G" Platform Will Generate Substantial Economic Benefits

Telecom Advisory Services has released a study regarding the potential impact of the emerging cable "10G" platform on the U.S. economy. It concludes that the benefits could be quite substantial: "at least $330 billion in economic output and ... more than 676,000 new jobs over 7 years."

With all of the current attention appropriately paid to 5G mobile broadband, the letter "G" brings to mind the term "generation" (as in "fifth generation"). "10G," however, refers to "10 gigabit." Championed by CableLabs, 10G is an emerging suite of technologies and standards, including DOCSIS® 4.0, that promises to deliver up to 10x faster download speeds, lower latency, improved security, and greater reliability – all over existing network infrastructure. No digging or new fiber required.

In a September Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "'10G' Can Help Future-Proof Broadband Infrastructure," I discussed how – with some facilitating tweaks to the regulatory environment – cable broadband providers could help policymakers accomplish the goal of universal high-speed Internet access:

• Existing coverage could be extended into areas as yet unserved.
• Current offerings, which deliver gigabit downstream speeds to the vast majority (93 percent) of U.S. homes passed, are more than sufficient to enable rural Americans (and others lacking broadband access) to engage fully in virtual work, education, healthcare, and entertainment.
• And, with an upgrade path to 10G on the horizon, subsidized facilities constructed today could remain competitive with rival technology platforms (fiber-to-the-home, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, and the aforementioned 5G) for years to come.

"Assessing the Economic Potential of 10G Networks," the just-released Telecom Advisory Services study prepared by Dr. Raul Katz and Fernando M. Callorda, forecasts the impact that 10G deployments might have in terms of contributions to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), increased consumer surplus, and jobs created. Without vouching for their precise accuracy, I would like to highlight the following claims:

• Over the next seven years, network investment and related spending will contribute $126.7 billion to GDP – and create 376,000 jobs.
• New applications and use cases enabled by 10G's faster speeds will add $131.7 billion to GDP – and lead to nearly 300,000 additional jobs.
• Speed increases will generate $71.5 billion in consumer surplus.

As I do in the paper referenced above, the report points out that "Congress could encourage the deployment of 10G by cable operators [in unserved rural areas] by no longer requiring that broadband providers obtain designation as an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier by the applicable state agency as a prerequisite to participating in federal universal service support programs" and "policymakers could encourage future 10G deployment by eliminating excessive fees and inequitable attachment requirements imposed by utility pole owners on cable operators."