BroadbandNow

A data-driven series examining the state of broadband deployment in the US throughout the 2010’s, as well as a look ahead to where and how advanced deployment technologies will affect our progress looking out to the next decade. From 2010 to 2020, Americans with access to broadband internet increased from an estimated 74.5 percent to 93.5 percent. ome states have seen greater improvement in broadband availability over the last ten years than others. Montana saw the greatest improvement, with broadband availability increasing from 11% to 86% between 2010 and 2020 – a 652% growth rate.

In 2013, 17 percent of consumers in both China and the US had access to a fiber internet connection. Fast forward to 2019, China’s penetration has jumped to 86 percent while the US is only at 25 percent. While America continues to suffer from an immense digital divide, China’s government has made incredible progress building out a state-sponsored super network of fiber optic connections. Despite the constant posturing and discussion about the importance of fiber, the US has not been effective at deploying a nationwide fiber optical network. Why is this?

The landscape and geography of access to high-speed internet continues to change rapidly due to economic and regulatory changes, private investments into new technology and policy proposals leading up to the 2020 presidential election. From Q2 to Q3 2019 we saw a shift towards higher speeds, but also higher prices. With respect to pricing, since our Q2 report there have been more than 700 pricing or plan updates by internet service providers. With respect to speed, this report shows that nearly every state experienced an increase in access to 500 mbps internet.

Broadband is emerging as a critical campaign issue for the US 2020 presidential election, and there’s good reason: nearly 60 million people in the US do not have broadband service at home. Despite this staggering fact, only four of the 14 presidential candidates we looked at have released fleshed-out policy proposals to expand broadband access (all of them democrats). On the Democratic side, broadband has become a central piece to many rural revitalization plans but as mentioned, only four candidates have released detailed broadband proposals.

Installing high-speed fiber-optic infrastructure is incredibly expensive. By some accounts, it can cost up to $8,000 per home to have the cabling put in place. Yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, a Federal Highway Administration report detailed that up to 90 percent of this cost was tied up in the process of actually digging up roadways, not the fiber lines themselves. As a result, some cities and states champion the idea of future-proofing PROW’s (public rights-of-ways) during road construction projects.

Half of Americans now have access to broadband at speeds of 500 Mbps or above. But less than half of Americans (48.5%) have wired broadband available at $60 or less per month. Availability of 500 Mbps service varies considerably from one state to another. More than 90% of people in Delaware (97%) and the District of Columbia (99%) have 500 Mbps service available to them, followed by Maryland (89%), Utah (87%) and Illinois (85%).

The climate for municipal broadband has worsened significantly since our last report in 2018. There are now 26 states with laws on the books that either roadblock or ban outright municipally-owned broadband networks. These laws — some of them passed just last year — point to a growing tension between state lawmakers and municipal, county and local governments, whose interests seem often at odds with one another. The telecom industry’s lobbying efforts have had tangible ramifications on state laws governing municipal broadband.