US vs. EU Broadband Trends

The US handily leads the European Union in both broadband infrastructure deployment and broadband adoption—at all speeds—and this lead grows when comparing higher speed offerings. 

• Deployment: US leads EU by 12 percentage points at 30 Mbps; 25 pp lead for ≥100 Mbps.
• Adoption: US leads EU by 9.4 pp at 30 Mbps; 21.4 pp lead for ≥100 Mbps.

The US infrastructure advantage is most significant when comparing rural areas, despite the EU definition of “rural” including more population-dense areas (which allows costs to be spread across a much larger customer base). US leads EU in rural deployment by 22.3 pp at 30 Mbps. US dominance on broadband adoption reinforces prior research showing encouraging progress on US broadband affordability—with U.S. broadband prices declining, even as the costs of many other essential goods and services continue to rise. Broadband providers invest substantially more in US versus EU infrastructure (≥3x on a per household basis). This can be attributed to a more collaborative public-private U.S. policy framework that encourages investment in facilities-based competition rather than imposing heavy government regulation (e.g. open access, unbundling). One added advantage of the United States’ pro-investment approach is that its consumers enjoy twice the facilities-based competition as their EU counterparts. It also has infused the country with extensive physical network redundancy and capacity, which can bolster resilience in times of crisis—from surging online traffic amid a pandemic to acts of cyberwarfare.