Broadband Performance

This paper analyzes residential consumer usage of broadband and the performance of fixed broadband connections in the U.S. The data and analyses in this paper were used to create the National Broadband Availability Target described in the National Broadband Plan (NBP), and therefore represent key inputs into the calculation of the broadband availability gap. The paper also explains how networks have evolved and could evolve over time and what drives network usage and performance demands.

Data indicate a diverse broadband consumer population with several different usage patterns:

• The average Internet user has been online for 10 years and spends roughly 29 hours per month online at home, double the amount in 2000.
• Faster connections are correlated with more time online.
• In the first half of 2009, the median broadband user consumed almost 2 gigabytes of data per month, whereas the average (mean) user consumed over 9 gigabytes per month.
• Mean usage is driven by a small set of users who consume large amounts of data.
• Overall, per-person usage is growing substantially (30-35% per year).
• Based on FCC analysis, there are four distinct use profiles among U.S. consumers, each with different usage characteristics.
• For these four use profiles, actual download speed demands range from 0.5 to 7 megabits per second (Mbps), with varying quality-of-service requirements.
• Data indicate that 80% of broadband use falls into three of these profiles, which require actual download speeds of no more than 4 Mbps.
• Usage is increasing with greater use of video and two-way, interactive applications.