Our first state of broadband report for 2021 continues to monitor progress on our mission for every American to have access to broadband internet amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
As always, data for this report comes from (a) pricing and package data from all 2, 000+ U.S. ISPs, (b) publicly available FCC “Form 477” data, (of which the latest public release was December 2020) and (c) updated coverage data voluntarily submitted to us directly from providers.
Our major finding is that 77% of Americans now have access to low-priced internet at speeds of 25 mbps download / 3 mbps upload. This is up from 70% from our Q4, 2020 report and up from 50% in Q1 of 2020, and is a major milestone.
The Broadband Gap—who's Not Online In America Today
Faster broadband speeds, such as 100 mbps download / 25 upload, are priced significantly higher and just 31% of Americans have access to low-priced plans at these speeds, consistent with our last report. We define a low-priced internet plan as $60/month or cheaper, excluding temporarily promotional pricing.
In this report, a new area we sought to explore is speed symmetry. This means both upload and download speeds are the same. This matters for real-world users who might have multiple household members working from home or attending classes online.
It is just as important to have performative upload speeds to submit work or share content. We specifically looked at 100/100 and compared it to our higher broadband standard of 100/25 to measure the gap specifically in upload speed access. Like in other broadband metrics, Rhode Island and Washington DC were leaders in the country with access to symmetrical broadband at the 100 mbps level.
Limiting Broadband Investment To
Connecticut stood out as one of the states with the highest rates of 100/25, but one of the lowest for 100/100, showing a massive gap between upload speed levels and that a high level of traditional broadband access is not always synonymous with symmetry.
Download and upload speed are the key performance indicators that are reported and advertised by ISPs. Network performance can vary from location to location so it is helpful to be able to compare states. The below tool allows you to select states from the dropdown menu and compare their median download and upload speeds over time.
21 states had their latency improve from Q4, 8 saw no change, and 24 experienced performance decline. Latency refers to the amount of delay that exists in a given connection between sending and receiving data. New Jersey was the only state with single digit latency, with March 2021 having the lowest latency in the past 15 months at a median RTT of 8, and was the state that saw the biggest improvement quarter over quarter.
Industry Optimistic About Calls For A Targeted 'buy America' Waiver Ahead Of Broadband Awards
The state with the biggest decrease in latency performance quarter over quarter was Nevada. Also, consistent with prior reports, Hawaii and Alaska lag behind the continental United States.
New York has passed a new law requiring all internet service providers operating within the state to offer at least one $15 per month plan to low-income residents. Operators must either provide 25 Mbps download speeds for these plans, or whatever their existing low-income plan provides, whichever is greater.
Across the country, states have been taking measures to make community broadband more accessible for their citizens. All in all, five states have drafted bills that would ease restrictions against municipal networks thus far in 2021.
How Starlink Is A Reliable Internet Service For Rural America
Arkansas and Washingtons’ bills have both passed, while Montana’s has failed. See our full list of states with municipal broadband restrictions here.
SpaceX has already launched eight Starlink missions in 2021, bringing the total number of operational satellites to 1, 378. The company anticipates that within the next several launches, they will have the capability for continuous, global coverage.
Despite this, Starlink remains in beta in the U.S. and beyond. “We still have a lot of work to do to make the network reliable, ” Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said during the April Satellite 2021 LEO Digital Forum “We’ll move out of beta when we have a really great product that we are very proud of.”
Sky Broadband/captain America: The Winter Soldier'
In February, Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel established a Broadband Data Task Force, the sole purpose of which is to “implement long-overdue improvements to the agency’s broadband data and mapping tools”.
The Form 477 data collection practices have enabled vast issues of over-reporting across the country, and is on the list of practices the task force will continue to review over the coming months.
Data for the 2021 Q1 Report comes from publicly available plan and coverage data from more than 2, 000 internet service providers in the fourth quarter of 2020. Wired broadband is defined as all cable, fiber, and DSL technologies. In this report we focused on measuring access to the FCC’s definition of broadband, which is 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speed, as well as ’s recommended increased standard for the changing digital needs of Americans of 100 Mbps download and 25 Mbps upload speed.
How Do Americans Connect To The Internet?
Low-priced plan coverage was based on what providers have reported on their most recent FCC Form 477 submission at the census block level. If a provider has indicated that they have coverage in a given census block, we assume that all of the provider’s national plans are also available in that block, as well as any regional plans serving those blocks. Plan pricing is based on the regular monthly rate offered of standalone internet plans. Promotional rates are only considered if that is the only advertised price publicly available. Speed test (RTT) data comes from M-Lab’s network diagnostic tool speed tests.
Tyler Cooper is the Editor-in-Chief at . He has more than a decade of experience in the telecom industry, and has been writing about broadband issues such as the digital divide, net neutrality, cybersecurity and internet access since 2015.
Julia is an expert in analytics and data. She has written for about broadband industry issues such as the digital divide and internet access, pricing, and consumer behavior and enjoys creating unique data visualizations and maps of complex datasets.
Broadband In Latin America
Contact us and we'll connect you with a broadband market expert on our team who can provide insights and data to support your work.
Contact us and we'll connect you with a broadband market expert on our team who can provide insights and data to support your work.We need a national, comprehensive broadband strategy, a plan that ensures that everyone in America can use High-Performance Broadband as soon as possible. High-Performance Broadband available to everyone in America is an important ingredient for a more just America, a healthier society, and an economy that offers true opportunity for everyone. We need to inject a new sense of urgency into implementing equitable broadband policies.
Before he passed, Congressman John Lewis told us, “Access to the Internet … is the civil rights issue of the 21st century.” There are almost three times as many people without broadband in urban/metro places than in rural places, and lack of broadband adoption is greater among Black, Hispanic, and lower-income households. Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, joined by civil rights leaders, explained, “Our historic failure to close the digital divide has had a devastating effect on communities of color in both rural and urban America.”
Ag 101: Broadband In Rural America
On January 20, I heard a celebration of democracy – and a call that, in the midst of the pandemic, economic disparity, racial inequity, and a climate in crisis, “unity is our path forward.” In our American democracy, we are called upon to inform ourselves, form our own opinions, and contribute to the debate so we can decide together what is best for our communities and our nation. The call for unity requires us to accept that there are differences, to reach the end of a debate, and to accept the decisions made in our democratic process. E pluribus unum. Although we have many voices, we remain one. Without that commitment to each other, our democracy dies, our nation fails.
At the Institute, we are not for broadband for broadband’s stake. We see it as the infrastructure of opportunity—an essential tool to ensure a thriving democracy.
We need a national, comprehensive broadband strategy, a plan that ensures that everyone in American can use High-Performance Broadband as soon as possible. These recommendations are drawn from 's Broadband for America Now and Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s. They highlight actions that can be taken by the Biden Administration, Congress, and the Federal Communications Commission.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Broadband Technologies For Rural America
The Institute for Broadband & Society’s work on a national broadband agenda is built on the lessons and innovative ideas of communities, public-interest advocates, government officials, and industry experts that have labored to expand broadband’s reach to everyone in the United States. We’ve compiled a list of their research reports and briefs that contribute to the ongoing discussion of broadband policy crafted in the public’s interest.
This policy brief, written by Jordan Arnold and Jonathan Sallet, explains why and how the federal government should support the construction of open-access, middle-mile networks and how that support can be structured. It provides background on different kinds of open-access, middle-mile networks across
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