Wealthy suburbs get best broadband deals; DC, rural areas lag behind

People who live in low-income areas of the District of Columbia on average get less for their broadband dollar than those who live in the wealthy suburbs — and subscribers in rural areas get the worst deals of all, according to a new study.

The Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University analyzed customer speed tests and surveys around the nation’s eighth-largest metropolitan statistical area, which has a population of about 5.4 million. The data — 4,294 records — offer a rare glimpse into broadband service performance and pricing on a local level. Such information is closely guarded by providers and is not available from the government. The pricing data were compiled by network diagnostics firm Ookla, which is one of two providers of connection speed tests featured on the Federal Communications Commission’s website. Only subscribers to stand-alone broadband service were included in the analysis. Connection speeds are determined by how fast a piece of data travels over the Internet in a single second. To measure value, the most popular method is to divide the monthly cost of service by the connection speed. The result is the average cost per megabit, per second (Mbps). This measure might show that a subscriber's monthly bill may be low, but not worth it because the connection speed is so slow.