USTelecom Industry Metrics and Trends 2020: The Broadband Boom

USTelecom released its Industry Metrics and Trends 2020 report highlighting key elements of the broadband boom and investment story. USTelecom will weigh in soon explaining why the Federal Communications Commission should no longer mandate so-called network unbundling, a relic from a different (and far less competitive) era. Key highlights from the USTelecom Industry Metrics and Trends 2020:

Consumers and providers have made the transition from legacy voice to broadband and mobile communications services.

• A projected 84 percent of American households (109 million households) will subscribe to fixed broadband by the end of 2020.
• Wireless will account for 79 percent of voice connections by 2020 while traditional phone lines will account for 4 percent.
• Six percent of U.S. households will use traditional telephone lines at the end of 2020 while 65 percent will be wireless-only and 29 percent Internet-based voice service, mostly from cable operators.
• Traditional switched telephone subscriptions fell from a peak of 186 million in 2000 to a projected 24 million in 2020.

Nearly all Americans have networks available to them, and providers have deployed increasingly fast broadband services.

• As of mid-2018, 98.6 percent of Americans have access to a fixed network; 99.8 percent have access to a mobile network; and satellite is available to nearly all consumers.
• As of mid-2018, 94 percent of Americans could get fixed broadband at 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload (25/3 Mbps) or greater; 90 percent at 100/10 Mbps or greater; and more than two-thirds (and growing) at near-gigabit speeds.

Competition and technological innovation define the broadband communications industry.

• Two or more fixed networks are available to 91 percent of Americans and two or more wired networks are available to 86 percent of Americans. The numbers are even higher in urban areas, where USTelecom analysis shows that 97 percent have a choice of two or more fixed networks.
• Three or more mobile networks are available to 98 percent of Americans.
• The portion of Americans that could choose from two or more wired broadband networks at 10/1 Mbps or greater grew from 53 percent of Americans in 2012 to 72 percent as of mid-2018.
• The portion of Americans that could choose from two or more wired broadband networks at 25/3 Mbps or greater grew from 23 percent of Americans in 2012 to 59 percent as of mid-2018.