Trending Broadband Prices

The results of a recent Technology Policy Institute study feed into the narrative that is rolled out every year by the lobbyists for the biggest internet service providers (ISPs)—that broadband prices are getting cheaper. The big ISPs mean that the price per megabit is getting cheaper—but the study says the absolute prices are getting cheaper. The easiest way to understand my objection is to consider the price of a 100 Mbps broadband product from 2013 to 2024. 

• In 2013, 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) download was the premier product for all of the big cable companies.
• The price for the 100-Mbps product from cable companies never decreased. In fact, the big cable companies like Comcast and Charter raised rates almost every year with increases that were faster than the rate of inflation.
• What this study missed is that a 100 Mbps product sold today by a cable company is not the same product as the one sold in 2013. A customer that had a 100 Mbps product in 2013 had a premium product that would have been upgraded between 2019 and 2022 to a speed of around 300 Mbps.

This study is comparing what was the premium broadband product in 2013 to what is now a low-tier product that might only be available to low-income homes. While the speed is the same in 2013 and 2024—this is not the same product—and comparing the 100 Mbps product for the two time period is comparing apples and oranges.