100Mbps Internet available to 59 percent of Americans, but ISP choice limited

[Himanshu Arora]

According to a recently released Department of Commerce report, fifty nine percent of the US population can get access to a 100Mbps or faster broadband connection, but only 8 percent can choose from two or more ISPs, while a meager 1 percent can choose from three or more for those kind of speeds. The report is based on data from the Census Bureau and National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

The report notes that 86 percent of Americans can get access to at least 25Mbps Internet connections, with 37 percent having the option to choose from two or more service providers and 9 percent from three or more. Similarly, for 10 Mbps Internet, the numbers stand at 94, 70, and 28 percent, respectively.

It's worth mentioning that the FCC currently defines "broadband" as 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream, and the agency is in the process of upgrading that to 10Mbps for downloads and 1Mbps for upload.

As for the gigabit tier, the service is available to only 3 percent of the US population, with none having the option to choose from multiple ISPs. It’s possible some of this figures are slightly off as the report is using year old data (December 2013). As of today, lucky citizens residing in areas like Austin have the option to choose from companies like AT&T and Google for a gigabit connection.

The report also notes that over a quarter of American homes have not adopted Internet service, with many citing cost as their primary reason.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/59204-100mbps-internet-available-59-percent-americans-but-isp.html

 

[Jim$ter]

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT. They must be including Sat service which to me is falsely advertised. Your lucky to get dialup speed and they advertise like 20MB or something crazy.

 

[davislane1]

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT. They must be including Sat service which to me is falsely advertised. Your lucky to get dialup speed and they advertise like 20MB or something crazy.

I have a 100Mbs/50Mbs connection. This service is provided throughout the state, with much faster FiOS having been slowly rolled out over the past eight years. I call BS on your call of BS.

 

[wiyosaya]

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT. They must be including Sat service which to me is falsely advertised. Your lucky to get dialup speed and they advertise like 20MB or something crazy.

I have a 100Mbs/50Mbs connection. This service is provided throughout the state, with much faster FiOS having been slowly rolled out over the past eight years. I call BS on your call of BS.

Well, consider yourself lucky. How about telling us what state you live in. I live in NY State, and at least in NY State, speeds like that are not widely available. I find that people often think along the lines of "because it is that way for me, then it is that way for everyone."

 

[cmbjive]

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT. They must be including Sat service which to me is falsely advertised. Your lucky to get dialup speed and they advertise like 20MB or something crazy.

What are you talking about? You can get internet through broadband, fiber, wireless, satellite and cable with speeds up to 1 Gb (Google Fiber) in some places. We have gone from 13.3 kbps to a 1Gb/sec in less than twenty years.

And anyone outside of cities should be lucky to even have broadband functioning. Do you know how much it costs to drag a line to some house out in the sticks?

Well, consider yourself lucky. How about telling us what state you live in. I live in NY State, and at least in NY State, speeds like that are not widely available. I find that people often think along the lines of "because it is that way for me, then it is that way for everyone."

davislane1 can speak for himself, but I don't think like that for a second. I live in an area where I am waiting for Centurylink to offer 40 MB/s downloads because more and more of my devices are connected to the Web. However, Cox offers a 150 MB/s in the area, but I've never been too keen on using cable. Don't fault the ISPs for living in an area that is poorly developed for Internet. We all make our choices, but sometimes we have to wait for good things to happen.

 

[Uncle Al]

We were promised fiber grade service down to the individual user when the Telco's started their distribution networks. In most cases you had to wait for a DSS to be built in your neighborhood before you got anything faster than 9600 baud on dial up; yet across the Asian continent they installed fiber from the get-go and 100 MB lever service is the norm, not the exception. As with too many things in our country, businesses only project for the next quarters profits rather than the long term vision. Exceptions like Virgin, Tesla are getting more and more rare, possibly because of the higher risk exposure, but when the rewards are so much greater, it's a calculated risk.

If you want to drill down to the real problem, our business schools are still pushing the same old approach and discourage true out of the box thinking. We are letting bean counters run major corporations rather than the visionaries that founded them. There is no doubt about the importance of making a profit, but without innovation and more forward thinking, the profits dry up. You want to improve it all? Get rid of the bean counters and the HR gerbils and make those mid-level managers start taking ownership again. Then you'll see some real action.

NOTE: This editorial comment brought to you by a "grumpy old man" that lived it, saw it, and watched it die ....

 

[davislane1]

How about telling us what state you live in.

Georgia.

I find that people often think along the lines of "because it is that way for me, then it is that way for everyone."

Precisely why I responded to the first comment (emphasis added):

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT.

All of this access business is readily verifiable by going to the ISPs websites and punching in zip codes.

 

[cmbjive]

We were promised fiber grade service down to the individual user when the Telco's started their distribution networks.

We were also promised flying cars, a moon base, and nuclear fusion reactors. Reality sometimes sets in.

 

[Jim$ter]

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT. They must be including Sat service which to me is falsely advertised. Your lucky to get dialup speed and they advertise like 20MB or something crazy.

What are you talking about? You can get internet through broadband, fiber, wireless, satellite and cable with speeds up to 1 Gb (Google Fiber) in some places. We have gone from 13.3 kbps to a 1Gb/sec in less than twenty years.

And anyone outside of cities should be lucky to even have broadband functioning. Do you know how much it costs to drag a line to some house out in the sticks?

Brought to by Verizon FIOS. Seriously, so since I don't live in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Erie I don't deserve high speed internet? I live about 1hr away from all those cities in a smaller city. I don't live in the boonies but we don't have any choice besides local cable company or phone company. I tend to believe its the same in all the smaller cities. We don't have fiber so the best your gonna see is maybe 50MB from cable. And we are just seeing that with the business side. Consumers are no where near that. So just because your big city offers FIOS internet don't mean the other 95% of people living elsewhere have anything even remotely close to that. I can't believe you think wireless, satellite, or cable offer anything near 1GB speeds. You sir are living in a dream world. The only thing that offers that speed is Fiber which has very limited deployment in the USA with Verizon all about abandoning deploying it anymore. At the current rate maybe in 50 years we might have it. I think the only thing that might save us all is some type of new highspeed unlimited wireless for all. Current technologies aren't even close. So I stand by the BS on the chart.

 

[cmbjive]

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT. They must be including Sat service which to me is falsely advertised. Your lucky to get dialup speed and they advertise like 20MB or something crazy.

What are you talking about? You can get internet through broadband, fiber, wireless, satellite and cable with speeds up to 1 Gb (Google Fiber) in some places. We have gone from 13.3 kbps to a 1Gb/sec in less than twenty years.

And anyone outside of cities should be lucky to even have broadband functioning. Do you know how much it costs to drag a line to some house out in the sticks?

Brought to by Verizon FIOS. Seriously, so since I don't live in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Erie I don't deserve high speed internet? I live about 1hr away from all those cities in a smaller city. I don't live in the boonies but we don't have any choice besides local cable company or phone company. I tend to believe its the same in all the smaller cities. We don't have fiber so the best your gonna see is maybe 50MB from cable. And we are just seeing that with the business side. Consumers are no where near that. So just because your big city offers FIOS internet don't mean the other 95% of people living elsewhere have anything even remotely close to that. I can't believe you think wireless, satellite, or cable offer anything near 1GB speeds. You sir are living in a dream world. The only thing that offers that speed is Fiber which has very limited deployment in the USA with Verizon all about abandoning deploying it anymore. At the current rate maybe in 50 years we might have it. I think the only thing that might save us all is some type of new highspeed unlimited wireless for all. Current technologies aren't even close. So I stand by the BS on the chart.

Firstly, you messed up your quote (it's happened to me before). Second, what you deserve and what you can get are two different things. I deserve a lot of things, but that has no impact on what you are currently getting. I don't know what investment in broadband infrastructure is like in your area, but rest assured it is more than likely going to come down to cost and time. Your second sentence is what I take issue with: Internet has definitely improved over the years and has increased people's ability to use the Internet without major problems.

And for the record I don't live in a big city. I live about 50 miles outside the Phoenix metro area where, about ten miles north of me, my in-laws can get 40 MB/sec DSL, but I can't. Nor did I say that wireless, satellite, or cable offer anything near 1 GB speeds, but they were listed to show that there are several options for getting internet ALL of which happened in the last two decades. However, Cox is getting ready to 1 GB speeds, but, as with everything that is new and shiny, will require much time before it is implemented and available more widely. Google can be thanked for showing other companies that 1 GB speeds is very possible.

If VZW is abandoning fiber it is because they found it to be prohibitively expensive. You are the one living in a dream world where you think you are somehow entitled to fast internet. Your first comment is what is B.S.: Broadband functionality is considerably different than what you were getting when you had to use a 13.3 kbps modem and wait five minutes to connect to the internet.

 

[JohnCB]

"Up To" 100Mbps. Comcastly translates to 25Mbps for 3hrs once a week only on Tuesday's with a full moon and at 2:32 am for 3.14 Minutes

 

[EClyde]

ATT and all the other chumps that deliver internet might spend less on glitz ads and more on product...but NOOOOO

 

[yRaz]

Comcast is so oversold in my area that I keep getting T3 time-outs. My internet drops every 30-45 minutes for about two minutes at a time. Online gaming is completely out. I'm frequently getting my streams disrupted and I'm not even guaranteed the speed I'm getting because I "don't have a business account".

I'm paying for 105down/35up and currently I'm getting 72down/10up
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3997531381
And this is on a GOOD day. Most of the time I get a max of 50-60 down. My upload rarely goes below 15 though, I haven't seen it at 10 in years.

When I talked to them the T3 Time-outs they blamed it on my modem. If I want to have a technician come look at my lines I get charged a service fee. Apparently you own the cables lines once they install them, but you are only renting the modem/cable boxes. But Comcast will kindly fix anything that goes wrong with my lines as long as I pay them a $5/m insurance fee.

Just because I am paying comcast for those speeds DOES NOT MEAN I am receiving them. Hell, there are times when I am not receiving service at all because of them over selling their lines.

 

[Joe Potosky]

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT. They must be including Sat service which to me is falsely advertised. Your lucky to get dialup speed and they advertise like 20MB or something crazy.

Just did a speed test.' 66.31 down and 4.39 up. Live in a rural area (apple orchard behind the property).

 

[Joe Potosky]

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT. They must be including Sat service which to me is falsely advertised. Your lucky to get dialup speed and they advertise like 20MB or something crazy.

Just did a speed test.' 66.31 down and 4.39 up. Live in a rural area (apple orchard behind the property).

By the way, upstate NY (the real upstate, near the Canadian Border) using Charter Cable.

 

[wiyosaya]

How about telling us what state you live in.

Georgia.

I find that people often think along the lines of "because it is that way for me, then it is that way for everyone."

Precisely why I responded to the first comment (emphasis added):

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT.

All of this access business is readily verifiable by going to the ISPs websites and punching in zip codes.

In GA no less. I bet it is nice.

IMHO, the issue is further complicated in that it is presently up to the states to decide how to handle these things. In NYS, the public service commission is allowing competition in areas, but it is taking time for alternative providers to get a foothold for instance - https://greenlightnetworks.com/wp-content/cache/wp-rocket/greenlightnetworks.com//index.html_gzip as soon as they hit my neighborhood, I'm tossing the only true HS ISP (TWC) out the door.

But govt be cursed, according to some. Why on earth would we want to classify ISPs as utilities?? At least for my area, the reporting in this article is spot on. Limited access it is as TWC is the only option and has a choke-hold on the area, and in our area, 50 Mbps is the best that is offered.

 

[Raoul Duke]

I live in a city of over a million, two choices for internet. To me this isn't competition or freedom of choice.
Can't say I am unhappy with my service speedwise, but with two choices you either pay what they ask or you have no service.

 

[treetops]

I get a steady 40 down with century link. first year was 30$ a month, now its 85$ a month. I am going to look at how much20 mbps is because I really don't see myself going over 20. 5 mbps per hd netflix playing, its only me and my gf. My vpn paid for PIA never goes past 5 mpbs. Steam never downloads past 5 mbps.

City of 50k, thats 40 mpbs is the best century link to offer here. Idk about cox.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Paying for 10MB and lucky to get 5MB. In fact we have had 3 outages the last week.

 

[davislane1]

In GA no less.

Contrary to popular belief, the populous areas of Georgia aren't backwoods.

I bet it is nice

Having used "inferior" connections, I can say that the only two areas where there is a noticeable difference is with exchange data feeds and torrent downloads. Outside of that, the people complaining about speed are whining about marginal perceptions. I'd be happy with 20-30Mbs if I didn't need the extra speed for trading.

 

[amstech]

Jimster is right to a degree.
Only fiber in our entire county is for business only.
DANC, or http://www.danc.org/operations/telecommunications
Its our backup for the Hospital, our main business connection is through TwC, which is the only way to get decent speed (think its 50down/10up).

For regular customers I pay out the wazoo for TwC ,(its either that or DirecTV for us) I have the "Turbo" package and get 2MB down.
Extreme is 5MB.

 

[BlueDrake]

I'm out near the US border (I'm living in Canada) and honestly, I wish we had speeds similar to you even if it's for a bit of expense. It might actually push our ISPs to really aggressively try to, push their upgrades to cities and not just ignore us based on location. My connection is 15/10 and it clocks in at 15/1 due to location, all that ISPs worry about, is if your download matches that set speed. Upload isn't even a priority, and this is coming from the ISP themselves.

I talked to someone higher up in the company, and not some general tech support lackey you chat with. We're literally too far away, from our central hub which is like 130km from here. Upload is what I really wanted the most, when I made the switch but I'm struggling with a 1Mbps connection. Cable is a possible option but literally, I've got a weird room location for cable to be run. So it's basically nixed, after the last ISP we had for it.

Which basically never ended up giving me service, within the month I cancelled because of their non-existent help. Connection never connected once, nobody came to bury the line, etc so we said no to cable. I'm stuck with DSL-like connection until I move, which is rather unknown right now.

 

[drjekelmrhyde]

There is one small ISP that offer 1gigabit here(Chicago) that you have to live in a apartment with 10 or more units and have to have been built after 2004. I think they added those types in the graphs

 

[Camikazi]

Guess I am lucky, this is normal speeds for me and my network is actually slowing me down a bit. This is the mainstream tier of access for Comcast (Blast!) added to most bundles.

 

[harm9963]

I call BS on this entire graph. Nice try ISP's. No one has improved the speed in years. I think this must be some other country. Most people I know have internet below 3MB especially anyone outside of cities. 94% have have access to 10MB or greater? RIGHT. They must be including Sat service which to me is falsely advertised. Your lucky to get dialup speed and they advertise like 20MB or something crazy.

I have a 100Mbs/50Mbs connection. This service is provided throughout the state, with much faster FiOS having been slowly rolled out over the past eight years. I call BS on your call of BS.