The majority of Americans have neither the broadband speeds nor prices that would qualify them as having access to the advanced communications that FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed as table stakes for broadband availability.

That’s according to a survey from BroadbandNow, a comparison and research site tracking high-speed internet service in the U.S., meant to determine which states have the best and worst broadband.

In its latest proposal for what level of service should meet the congressional definition of advanced telecommunications being rolled out to all Americans in a reasonbable and timely fashion, Rosenworcel signaled that she wants to add 100% affordability to the definition.

The Federal Communications Commission is required to report to Congress periodically on progress toward universal broadband access, with the regulator empowered to regulate access to advanced telecommunications service if it concludes it is not being rolled out on a reasonable and timely basis.

Rosenworcel also wants to raise the FCC’s minimum definition of access to high-speed broadband to service at 100 Megabits per second downstream and 20 mbps upstream. The current standard is 25 Mbps upstream and 3 Mbps downstream, set in 2015.

According to the BroadbandNow survey, based on data from the FCC and other sources, speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream service are available to just 39% of Americans. While low-cost high-speed broadband access has increased, the survey found that “at least 20%” of Americans have access to broadband for $60 per month or less in all states, but in only one state, Wyoming, do more than half the residents have such access.

The top state for broadband access according to the survey was Delaware, whose former U.S.  senator, President Joe Biden, has made universal access by the end of the decade one of his administration's major goals.

Alaska has the worst access, with 20% of residents unable to access broadband at the current high-speed definition of 25 Mbps upstream and 3 Mbps downstream. 

BroadbandNow aggregates data to help consumers comparison-shop for wired and wireless broadband service. It advocates for municipal broadband and for raising the definition of high speed to 100 Mbps upstream and 20 Mbps downstream.

BroadbandNow said that networks continue to face some service degradation in "all corners of the nation," though the majority are dubbed "minor." 

Those broadband networks are handling major new spikes in demand from the newly stay-at-home populace having to work, learn and play via their broadband connections. 

Related: All the Latest on COVID-19 Impact on the Media Industry

BroadbandNow on Wednesday (April 22) released its latest data from the broadband speed tests it is conducting across the top 200 most populous cities, as well as hundreds more in the rural areas where a broadband lifeline is even more important given the geographical distancing on top of the social. 

BroadbandNow said that compared to last week, more cities are seeing dips of greater than 20% below the previous week's range. 

For the week of April 12-18, a third of cities (67%) recorded upload speed decreases of 20% more than the range across the previous weeks in 2020, and up from 61 cities last week. 

On the download side, 51 cities recorded greater than 20% decreases versus previous weeks in 2020. 

The good news for rural is that download and upload speeds have remained fairly stable for three weeks in a row (at about 16 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up). The bad news is that they are still lower on average than the previous 2020 weeks' range. 

Six cities have recorded non-minor speed decreases of more than 40% below their previous 2020 range--Baltimore; Jamaica, N.Y.; Oxnard, Calif.; Albuquerque; Boca Raton, Fla.; and New Orleans. 

According to broadband speed and service tracker BroadbandNow, in six of the top 10 most populous cities the broadband infrastructure appears to be handling the added load of telecommuting in the age of COVID-19. And in Seattle, considered one of the centers of the virus, broadband speeds are actually up. 

The bad news in the new report is that New York, the most populous city and in the state with the most cases of the virus, has seen some degradation of median speeds in the March 15 week to date versus the previous 11 weeks (see chart), as have San Diego and San Jose (California is also one of the states with the most cases) and Houston. 

But even in those cities, BroadbandNow said, none of the median speeds has dropped such that "the results indicate networks being at risk of not supporting common work-from-home applications, as of yet." 

The analysis was based on "raw speed test data from MLabs for the top 10 cities by population in the U.S."

Broadband Now, the Web site that provides info on broadband availability by plans, prices, and service ratings, said that March visits to its site are up 20% over the same period last year, which it attributes to a coronavirus-driven increased interest in home internet.

But the shop and/or switch trend is nothing new.

Broadband Now said that in 2019, some $90 billion in consumer spending shifted among providers of internet, TV and phone as consumers shop for new or replacement services.

That is according to its 2020 U.S. Internet, TV, & Phone Shopping Study*. That study found that in 2019, 36% of the population, or about 118 million people, have added or switched home services, compared to 16% in the previous study. When adding a streaming service is factored in, that jumps to a whopping 73%, or 241 million adults.

"With Americans increasingly dependent upon broadband internet for work, commerce and entertainment, and the debut of new services like Disney+, 5G mobile service and YouTube TV, we find that consumer purchase behavior is shifting faster than ever," the study asserts.

The latest survey found that streaming subscription market penetration as of 2019 was on par with residential internet adoption--89% had residential internet and 88% had at least one streaming service.

It also found that a whopping 71% of internet subs added a streaming service in 2019--both switching to a new service and adding a service--with streaming also topping the consumer satisfaction scores at 81 out of 100 versus cable/satellite service satisfaction at 66 out of 100.

Broadband Now asked streamers why they subscribed to a new service; price getting specific shows topped the list (see chart). "As the trend of content being exclusive to a specific streaming platform continues to grow, we expect this behavior to do the same over the next year and beyond," said Broadband Now.

Even as BroadbandNow was releasing a National Broadband Map comparing speeds, the Fiber Broadband Association said it is introducing a Broadband Experience Index which it argues is better. 

The fiber association said its new index gives consumers "a more comprehensive and reliable methodology for comparing broadband services in real-world applications rather than only measuring broadband based on speeds,"  one in which fiber to the home comes out on top.

The index includes data on reliability, bandwidth, and latency in addition to downstream and upstream speeds. To come up with those factors for its metric, the association says it polled over 2,000 broadband customers who get broadband from a variety of sources, including fiber optic and coaxial cable, wireless, satellite, and DSL. 

Association president Lisa Youngers said the index determined that fiber provided "best in class" service in terms of both reliability and speed. 

The association included the new index in replay comments to the FCC this week on its proposed funding of rural broadband buildouts to make the case for favoring fiber for its better performance and greater consumer satisfaction. 

BroadbandNow, the web site that helps consumers comparison shop for broadband service, has unveiled a new National Broadband Map that includes, for the first time, the price of service to the zip code and census block. 

"We believe that affordability and access to low prices is under-covered as a topic in the discussion of digital inclusion and wanted to change that.  

For where broadband is available it relies on the FCC form 477 data from carriers that has come under criticism, including by BroadbandNow, but the group says over 100 ISPs have updated that info. 

Other features:  

"Includes pricing: our map integrates our propriety and constantly updated pricing data from over 2,000 ISPs. 

"Evolving and Improving: Feedback is welcome from providers and the community to help us improve the map and add more precision and accuracy in real time. 

"Interactive: use toggles to filter by price, availability and speed. (you can also filter for various technologies, i.e. isolate insights about Fixed Wireless)." 

The FCC voted Aug. 1 on a plan to improve its own broadband availability data and map. Cable ISPs and others have advised it not to add the additional pricing factor into that effort, as some have called for. 

The commission voted unanimously Aug. 1, with two partial dissents by the Democrats, to create a new Digital Opportunity Data Collection (DODC) regime based on geospatial broadband coverage maps provided by fixed internet service providers (a method backed by NCTA). It does not apply to mobile broadband, at least not yet.   

BroadbandNow, the web site that helps consumers comparison shop for broadband service, has unveiled a new National Broadband Map that includes, for the first time, the price of service to the zip code and census block. 

"We believe that affordability and access to low prices is under-covered as a topic in the discussion of digital inclusion and wanted to change that.  

For where broadband is available it relies on the FCC form 477 data from carriers that has come under criticism, including by BroadbandNow, but the group says over 100 ISPs have updated that info. 

Other features:  

"Includes pricing: our map integrates our propriety and constantly updated pricing data from over 2,000 ISPs. 

"Evolving and Improving: Feedback is welcome from providers and the community to help us improve the map and add more precision and accuracy in real time. 

"Interactive: use toggles to filter by price, availability and speed. (you can also filter for various technologies, i.e. isolate insights about Fixed Wireless)." 

The FCC voted Aug. 1 on a plan to improve its own broadband availability data and map. Cable ISPs and others have advised it not to add the additional pricing factor into that effort, as some have called for. 

The commission voted unanimously Aug. 1, with two partial dissents by the Democrats, to create a new Digital Opportunity Data Collection (DODC) regime based on geospatial broadband coverage maps provided by fixed internet service providers (a method backed by NCTA). It does not apply to mobile broadband, at least not yet.