“Worst connected” Detroit and Cleveland are also “most improved”

Per the most recent American Community Survey data, among cities with 100,000 or more households, the two worst-connected cities, Detroit (MI) and Cleveland (OH), have also had the biggest percentage reductions in households without wireline broadband connections since 2019. Detroit added more than 41,000 households with cable, fiber or DSL subscriptions between 2019 and 2023, even while its total household count shrank by about 12,000; this took the city’s percentage of households without wireline from 46.3% down to 32.2%. In the same four years, Cleveland added almost 25,000 wireline broadband accounts while losing about 3,000 households, reducing its no-wireline percentage from 46.0% to 32.2%. In 2024 the big question is: Will the improved home broadband access rates in Cleveland, Detroit, and other U.S. cities survive the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program, and the resulting bigger monthly bills that started hitting many of their newly connected households in June?