FCC?s 2013 Measuring Broadband America shows some gain

For two years, the FCC told Americans that what their ISPs were advertising as broadband download speeds was not necessarily what they were actually getting. But this year, the FCC, in its now-annual Measuring Broadband America report, changes tack and registers download gain. Just part of  the "... Commission's efforts towards bringing greater clarity and competition to the home broadband services marketplace."

The commission noted that, "This year's report reveals that most broadband providers continue to improve service performance by delivering actual speeds that meet - or exceed - advertised speeds during the past year and that consumers are subscribing to faster speed tiers and receiving faster speeds than ever before."

At least some of that speed gain has resulted from users moving to faster speed tiers. "Nearly half of consumers who subscribed to speeds of less than 1 Mbps six months ago have adopted higher speeds," said the FCC, "and nearly a quarter of the users who subscribed to speeds between 1 Mbps and 3 Mbps have upgraded to faster speed tiers."

Moreover, the aggregate speed increase, while a measurable improvement, isn't necessarily something that consumers would notice. "The FCC found that the average speed tier subscribed to by consumers increased from 14.3 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 15.6 Mbps," said the commission.

But most Americans don't subscribe to those speeds. The FCC's most recent Internet Access Report provides a much more troubling picture. According to that report, 42 percent of U.S. Internet users' connections are less than 3 Mbps download, 769 kbps upload, while another 19 percent connect at speeds between 3 and 6 Mbps download, 1.5 Mbps upload.

Not bad news, but according to the National Broadband Plan, says the FCC, "at least 100 million homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 50 Mbps by 2015, and 100 Mbps by 2020." That means the carriers and the FCC still have a considerable way to go.

Read the full report here.

FCC releases Third "Measuring Broadband America" Report (FCC news release, Feb. 15, 2013)

Internet Access Services: Status as of December 31, 2011 (FCC Industry Analysis and Technology Division, Feb. 2013)

Measuring Broadband America (FCC, Feb. 2013)