Is High-Speed Internet Access Getting More Affordable, Really?

A recent report by BroadbandNow made the rounds in February 2022, with the authors concluding that the average price for broadband access across all major speed tiers for Americans has fallen, by an average of 31 percent or nearly $34/month, since 2016. At a glance, this is great news – perhaps affordable Internet access for all is within reach? Yet the reality is that this report from BroadbandNow, unfortunately, poorly frames the national broadband marketplace. At best, it muddies the waters with a lack of clarity about the relationship between broadband access speed tiers and relative pricing. At worst, it leaves the average reader with the incorrect assumption that broadband prices must be falling, and gives the monopoly cable and telephone companies ammunition to push for millions more in taxpayer dollars while building as little new infrastructure as possible. Either way, it contradicts the fact that broadband prices, for the vast majority of Americans, have consistently gone up over the last decade.

[Christine Parker is GIS and Data Visualization Specialist and Ry Marcattilio-McCracken is Senior Researcher and Research Team Lead at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.]