Tenth Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology released a report on measuring fixed broadband, finding, among other things: the weighted average advertised speed of the participating broadband providers was 146.1 Mbps, representing an 8% increase from the previous year and over a 100% increase from two years prior; and for most of the major broadband providers tested, measured download speeds were 100% or better than advertised speeds during the peak hours. The report was based on data collected in September and October 2019 from fixed broadband providers, as part of the FCC’s measuring broadband America program.

• The maximum advertised download speeds amongst the service tiers offered by ISPs and measured by the FCC ranged from 24 Mbps to 940 Mbps for the period covered by this report.
• The weighted average advertised speed of the participating ISPs was 146.1 Mbps, representing an 8% increase from the previous year (Ninth Report) and over 100% increase from two years prior (Eighth Report).
• For 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).
• Ten ISPs were evaluated in this report.  Of these Cincinnati Bell and Frontier employed multiple different broadband technologies across the USA.  Overall 12 different ISP/technology configurations were evaluated in this report and eight performed at or better than their advertised speed during the peak hours.  Only one performed below 90% for actual-to-advertised download speed during the peak hours.
• In addition to providing download and upload speed measurements of ISPs, this report also provides a measure of consistency of measured to advertised speeds of ISPs with the use of our “80/80” metric.  The 80/80 metric measures the percentage of the advertised speed that at least 80% of subscribers experience at least 80% of the time over peak periods.  Ten of the 12 ISP/technology configurations provide better than 75% of advertised speed to at least 80% of panelists for at least 80% of the time.