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.

Ookla Year-End 2023 Reports Shows Further Rise in U.S. Broadband Speeds

On January 16, Ookla released its Global Speed Index reports for December 2023, including for the United States. According to Ookla, median upload/download speeds in the U.S. for December 2023 were 227.27/26.59 Mbps for fixed broadband services and 111.01/9.68 Mbps for mobile broadband services. Those overall figures show significant improvement over Ookla's findings from March 2023 of 197.84/23.02 Mbps for fixed broadband services, and 81.26/9.44 Mbps for mobile broadband services. (For background, see my April 2023 blog post, "Ookla Reports Rising Fixed and Mobile Broadband Speeds in Early 2023.")

 

Ookla's December 2023 findings are yet another indicator of the success of the federal light-touch regulatory framework for broadband Internet access services, which encourages private market investment and innovation. That pro-free market approach was established in the FCC's 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order. Supporters of public utility regulation made dire predictions that the RIF Order would cause the Internet to slow to one word at a time or shuffle most Americans off into slow lanes while corporate elites enjoy fast lane privileges. The scare stories have proven totally false. 

 

On December 14, the Free State Foundation filed comments in the Securing and Safeguarding the Open Internet proceeding, recommending that the FCC stick to the pro-market policy of the RIF Order as the best way to promote continued advancements in broadband access for all Americans. The RIF Order's repeal of the agency's short-lived public utility regulation did not slow anyone’s speeds, and Ookla’s reports instead show that broadband speeds have continued to increase. FSF's comments urged the Commission to not reimpose public utility regulation on broadband Internet access services. 

USTelecom Report Shows Price Drops and Speed Increases for Broadband Services

On October 11, USTelecom released its "2023 Broadband Pricing Index." This latest edition of the BPI report found that prices for fixed wireline broadband services – DSL, cable, and fiber-to-the-home – declined between March 2022 and March 2023. According to the BPI Report, inflation-adjusted prices for providers' most popular broadband speed tier decreased by 18.1% and prices for their fastest speed tier option went down 6.5%. Additionally, between 2015 and 2023, inflation-adjusted prices for the most popular speed tier declined 54.7% and prices for the highest speed tier option dropped by 55.8%. 

Also, the BPI Report found that, between 2015 and 2023, "download speeds offered in the most popular tier increased by 141.5%, while upload speeds increased by nearly 285%" and that "[i]n the fastest-offered tier, download speeds increased by 117.1%, with upload speeds up by nearly 90%."

 

The BPI Report also shows Consumer Price Index (CPI) trends for broadband Internet services compared to other goods and services. Between 2015 and 2023, costs for consumer goods and services rose by 28%, according to CPI-U, but consumer prices for the most popular and the fastest speed options went down by 37% and 39%, respectively. 

 

The report relies on the FCC's Urban Rate Survey of the largest 14 wireline broadband providers that collectively serve 90% of all terrestrial fixed broadband services sold in the U.S. The 2023 BPI Report is available on USTelecom's website. FSF Senior Fellow Andrew Long wrote about the 2022 BPI Report in a June 2022 blog post and about the 2021 BPI Report in a May 2021 blog post. 

 

The findings of the BPI Report are particularly significant now that the FCC has opened its Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet proceeding and proposed to subject broadband Internet access services to public utility regulation. The continuing improvements in network speeds and the consumer-friendly pricing trends on broadband service plans are strong indicators that the broadband marketplace is competitive. Certainly, these market developments do not justify imposing stringent new regulation on broadband services. The Commission should not impose public utility regulation on broadband networks but maintain its market-oriented framework that has helped promote the private investment in competitive wireline broadband networks. For more on this point, see Free State Foundation President Randolph May's September 21, 2023, Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "Reimposing Burdensome Net Neutrality Mandates Will Harm Consumers."

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."

Report Compares Broadband Performance in Rural Areas

On June 11, Recon Analytics published an interesting report titled, "The Happiest and Unhappiest Broadband Customers in the United States." Recon received responses from broadband customers from rural counties across America regarding their satisfaction with broadband service performance. The report includes a list of the ten happiest broadband counties as well as the ten unhappiest broadband counties. In the report, author Dr. Roger Entner makes the commonsense observation that broadband provider performance matters more than technology platform, and that the performance level of individual providers can vary substantially in different geographic markets. For more, check out Recon Analytics' report.

Market competition certainly is important for encouraging performance quality by broadband Internet service providers in rural as well as urban areas. Broadband service providers that fail to deliver speeds at advertised benchmarks, that experience network outages and do not provide subscribers with sufficient connectivity, or that otherwise fail to provide value for the dollar deserve to lose subscribers to market rivals who can offer better performance. It's no secret that rural areas have lower population levels and density as well as geographic challenges to providing service. Consequently, rural areas have less competitors than urban areas. Near-term increases in availability and awareness of fixed wireless access (FWA) services may provide an additional spur to incumbent rural broadband providers to boost performance levels in areas where they are perceived to be lagging. 

Ookla Reports Rising Fixed and Mobile Broadband Speeds in Early 2023

On April 17, Ookla released its Market Report for the United States for the first quarter of 2023. According to Ookla, during the first quarter of the year, Charter Communications' Spectrum was ranked highest among fixed broadband services with download speeds of 234.8 Mbps. Comcast was a close second for fixed providers with speeds of 232.85 Mbps. For mobile providers, T-Mobile ranked first with download speeds of 165.22 Mbps, and Verizon Wireless was second at 74.5 Mbps. Oookla's Market Report provides additional breakdowns for both fixed and mobile services for consistency and latency and performance in supporting video services. The report also includes rankings for fixed broadband by region and for major cities as well as separate ranking among mobile providers for 5G performance and availability.

Coinciding with the release of its U.S. Market Report for Q1 2023, Ookla also released updated findings for March 2023. Ookla found that median upload/download speeds in the U.S. for last month were 197.84/23.02 Mbps for fixed broadband services, and 81.26/9.44 Mbps for mobile broadband services.

The Ookla report's speed findings for early 2023 are an indicator of continuing improvements in broadband service capabilities and network deployment in the United States. The report's findings also are a reflection of the federal light-touch regulatory framework for broadband Internet access services, which encourages private market investment and innovation. Future improvements in broadband access are best achievable by maintaining the pro-free market approach embodied in the FCC's 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order. Additionally, Congress and the Commission take further steps to build on the progress being made in this space. My January 2023 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "The 2022 Communications Marketplace Report: Timely FCC Action Could Accelerate Next-Gen Broadband Deployment," identified three such steps: (1) prioritize the lower 3 GHz band and other spectrum bands for repurposing for commercial services; (2) adopt fee caps and "shot clocks" on deployments of wireline facilities in state and local rights-of-way; and (3) ensure equitable access to broadband by prohibiting intentional discrimination, and not by imposing disparate impact liability. 

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. 

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.

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."

Study Finds Fixed Broadband Adoption and Speed Increases Spur Economic Growth

A study released in June 2022 titled "The Contribution of Fixed Broadband to the Economic Growth of the United States Between 2010 and 2020" found that fixed broadband adoption and higher speeds have spurred economic growth and benefitted consumers. 

As observed in the Telecom Advisory Services' study – authored by Raul Katz and Juan Jung of Telecom Advisory Services, LLC – the U.S. economy grew at an average annual rate of 3.3% between 2010 and 2020. Households with fixed broadband average download speeds of at least 25 Mbps grew from less than 1% in 2010 to over 65% in 2019. As a result, fixed average download speeds rose from about 10 Mbps in 2010 to about 174 Mbps in 2020. The study sought to isolate the contributions of those developments in broadband adoption and speeds to the growth of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) over ten years.

Notably, the Telecom Advisory Services study found that fixed broadband adoption drove nearly 11% of the accumulated growth in U.S. GPD, with speed improvement contributing an additional 11.5%. According to the study, "if broadband adoption and speeds had remained at 2010 levels, in 2020 the US GDP would have been $1.3 trillion lower ($19.6 trillion, rather than $20.9 trillion). This is equivalent to almost $4,000 annual dollars less for the average American." Additionally, as a result of fixed broadband infrastructure deployments and speed increases, "consumers receive[d] a surplus linked to the fulfillment of a whole new range of applications in the areas of communications, entertainment and information." The study found that "[a]ggregated consumer surplus at the national level increased to over $186 billion in 2020 (up from $81.6 billion in 2010) as a result of increased connectivity," and an additional $186.2 billon of consumer surplus was realized through fixed broadband speed increases.  

Importantly, fixed broadband deployment and fixed broadband speeds also have improved since the end of 2019. Data points showing increased access to broadband services over the last two years, including fiber services, are summarized in the Free State Foundation's July 1 comments to the FCC for its 2022 Communications Marketplace Report proceeding. The comments are available at FSF's website. 

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.

FCC Report Finds Consumers Are Benefitting From Fixed Broadband Improvements

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. 

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."

USTelecom Report on Broadband Documents Price Reductions, Speed Increases

USTelecom – The Broadband Association recently released a report comparing 2015 broadband pricing and speeds to those available today. "2020 Broadband Pricing Index: An Analysis of Decreasing Prices and Increasing Value for Broadband Service Over Time," as its name suggests, finds that "Americans are paying less today for broadband services that are significantly more capable than they were five years ago."

A few highlights:

• The price of the most popular broadband service tier is 20.2 percent lower in 2020 than it was in 2015 – and 28.1 percent lower when inflation is taken into account.
• Savings are even greater for the highest-speed tier: 37.7 percent (and 43.9 percent when inflation is considered).
• Speeds, meanwhile, have increased, by 15.7 percent for the most popular offering and 27.7 percent for the highest-speed offering.

All of this is made possible by the $70-80 billion that providers invest annually in broadband infrastructure.

And while these statistics make plain that broadband is far more affordable than in the past, USTelecom at the same time acknowledges that there is more work to be done by government and private stakeholders to remove obstacles to adoption.

As I noted in a previous post, USTelecom is a partner in the "K-12 Bridge to Broadband" initiative, which works with school districts to identify, and connect at discounted rates, the 30 percent of students who lack the connectivity necessary to participate in remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The full report, authored by Arthur Menko, founder, Telcodata and Business Planning, Inc., is available here.

New FCC Speed Test App Now Available

On August 3, the FCC released an updated and upgraded edition of its FCC Speed Test app for determining a user's Wi-Fi and cellular upload and download speeds as well as other performance metrics. The new app, which tests 5G wireless speeds, is available for both Android and iPhone operating systems. For more, see the Commission's press release (which includes links for downloading the new app) and this write-up by Gary Arlen with Multichannel News.

Ookla Reports Speed Increases for U.S. Fixed and Mobile Broadband

On July 8, Ookla released its "Q2 2020 Speedtest® United States Market Report." According to Ookla:

[M]edian download speed over mobile in the U.S. increased 15.8% between Q2 2019 and Q2 2020 to 29.00 Mbps. The median upload speed for mobile was 5.74 Mbps, down 15.2% from Q2 2019. 

Median download speed over fixed broadband increased 19.6% during the last year to 86.04 Mbps in Q2 2020, and median upload speed increased 1.5% to 11.86 Mbps in Q2 2020.

In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak and government lockdowns, these reported speed increases are welcome news. They also go to show the soundness of the FCC's pro-investment, pro-deployment, light-touch regulatory approach to broadband Internet access services.

Additionally, Ookla's report contains interesting comparative figures for fixed and wireless broadband Internet services according to speed and other metrics. This includes comparisons of 5G speeds and 5G device availability. 

New FCC Report Shows Increased Broadband Quality for Consumers

On December 1, 2016, the FCC published its sixth Measuring Broadband America report, which examines the speeds, latency, and consumer trends of fixed broadband services nationwide. Here are some of the key findings from the report:

Significant growth in broadband speeds available to consumers, though the results are not uniform across technologies. The median download speed, averaged across all participating ISPs, has almost quadrupled, from approximately 10 Mbps in March 2011, to approximately 39 Mbps in September 2015. Compared to last year’s value of 32 Mbps, this year’s median download speed was an increase of approximately 22%.  

Since the first Measuring Broadband America report in August 2011, the average annual increase in median download speeds by technology is 47% for cable, and 14% for fiber, while popular DSL speeds have remained largely the same. (See the chart below for the growth in the median download speed over the past five years.)

Actual speeds experienced by most consumers meet or exceed advertised speeds. All ISPs using cable, fiber or satellite technologies advertise speeds for services that, on average, are close to the actual speeds experienced by their subscribers. Fixed cable and fiber broadband customers experienced speeds that were 100% or better than advertised.

The chart below shows the ratio of weighted median speed to advertised speed for a number of broadband providers. Of the 16 providers included in the sample, nine of them delivered actual download and upload speeds that are greater than the advertised speeds.

Consumers with access to faster services continue to migrate to higher service tiers. Data shows that panelists subscribed in September 2014 to service tiers with advertised download speeds between 15 Mbps to 50 Mbps are the most likely to have migrated towards higher service tiers. In contrast, among panelists subscribed in September 2014 to service tiers with advertised download speeds of less than 15 Mbps – offered mostly by DSL services – only a few percent migrated within the following year to a service tier with a higher download speed.

Latency and packet loss vary by technologies. Consumers generally experienced low latency – the time it takes for a data packet to travel from one point to another in a network – on DSL, cable and fiber systems. Higher latency in satellite services may affect the perceived quality of highly interactive applications such as VoIP calls, video chat and multiplayer games. Consumers generally experienced low packet loss – the percentage of packets that are sent by the source but not received by the destination – on cable, satellite and fiber systems.

The results of the FCC’s sixth Measuring Broadband America report show that the quality of broadband is increasing throughout the United States. Despite regulatory barriers that may have slowed investment and innovation in broadband technologies, the broadband market remains dynamically competitive and consumers are benefiting from faster speeds and more reliable connections.

The State of Broadband