Broadband prices have dropped, in some cases significantly, over the past half-decade, according to an analysis by Broadband Now, which compares broadband services. 

The White House has been pushing its broadband subsidies in part by arguing affordable broadband is “out of reach“ for many in the country, but the trend —thanks to technology and economics — is already providing a tailwind toward greater affordability. 

The study of 50 national and regional broadband providers found that since 2016, prices decreased for all major download speeds (25 Megabits per second through 1 Gigabit per second and above, and over cable, fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL) and wireless networks. 

Broadband Now concedes that it is typical for technology to become cheaper as manufacturing improves and providers scale up, but decreasing prices are decreasing prices regardless of the reason. 

The study found that the highest speeds, and thus priciest plans, have fallen the most by an average of almost $60, or 42%, for 500 Mbps-plus service. 

That was followed by a $34.39 (35%) drop for 200-400 Mbps; $32.35 (33%) for 100-199 Mbps; and by $8.80 (14%) for 25-99 Mbps (the FCC's defines high-speed broadband as 25 Mbps-plus). 

The White House has put a thumb on the scale for fiber in its multibillion-dollar broadband subsidy programs and the study suggests that from a pure cost standpoint, that would make sense. “Fiber tends to be cheaper than cable [excluding promotional pricing] for most high-speed plans, even as fiber is generally considered to be the most robust and highest quality type of wired internet connection,” the study concluded. 

The White House is also factoring competition into its broadband availability and cost equation, something the study also backs up with the point that local prices are “reflective of competition.”

Among the ISPs studied were Comcast, Cox Communications, AT&T, Mediacom Communications, Verizon and Google Fiber. ■

An eclectic group of advocacy groups — from organizations representing computer companies and competitive networks to associations of farmers, realtors and hoteliers — have asked congressional leaders to find a way to pass President Joe Biden‘s infrastructure package, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act with its $65 billion for broadband, by the end of October.

Currently that bipartisan bill is tied to the contentious fight over the president‘s multitrillion-dollar — trimmed to under $2 trillion according to reports — “Build Back Better” plan.

In a letter to bipartisan House and Senate leadership sent Monday afternoon (Oct. 25), the groups, which include the Connect Americans Now coalition, ACT-The App Association, INCOMPAS and Broadband Now, as well as the U.S. Canola Association and Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association, to name but a few, said that the pandemic has shown how vital it is to close the broadband gap.

“This digital divide threatens access to the full promise of the American Dream for too many communities — both urban and rural,” they told the legislators. “American communities are being left behind without access to broadband infrastructure, without the resources they need to afford broadband service, without access to broadband-supported devices for telehealth, telework and school and without the digital skills necessary to utilize the full potential of digital technology.’

Billions of COVID-19 relief-related dollars have already been flowing to low-income broadband subsidies, e-learning, and telehealth through Federal Communications Commission programs, the states, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and others, but nobody is arguing that more money for deployment and adoption would be a bad thing, though there is political disagreement on what should qualify as a broadband deficit — a total absence of service, for example, or lack of competition, affordable broadband or a baseline speed.

The Senate has already passed the infrastructure bill, now the groups want passage House passage by the end of the month. “Congress must build on the positive momentum by advancing additional solutions to permanently bridge the digital divide,” they said.

BroadbandNow, which advocates for universal broadband deployment, said China is lapping the field, with fiber infrastructure growth nine times that of the U.S. in the past half decade. 

That is according to a new report whose title about says it all: "China’s Fiber Broadband Internet Approaches Nationwide Coverage; United States Lags Severely Behind." 

If winning the information age means access to "robust, future-proofed internet infrastructure," as broadband now asserts, China appears well on its way, says the group. 

It said that while America continues to face an "immense" digital divide, China's government has made been building out state-sponsored fiver super network. 

Critics of the comparison have pointed out that the price of that success is a network mandated--and potentially misused--by a command-and-control government. 

BroadbandNow concedes that China has complete control over infrastructure, but says that has plated a "pivotal" role in its "expedient" rollout. 

"Just seven years ago, 17 percent of citizens in both the U.S. and China had access to fiber broadband internet," said Broadband Now. "Today, 86 percent in China are covered – growing nearly nine times faster than the U.S. – while only one-in-four Americans (25 percent) have fiber internet capabilities," BroadbandNow said. 

BroadbandNow cites what it says are multiple reasons the U.S. is lagging in fiber deployment, including lack of competition, both from private companies and municipal networks; inadequate broadband mapping--a point most including the FCC have conceded; inefficient subsidy programs, and lack of common sense initiatives at the state level, like "dig once."