Report: Nearly half of America lacks access to low-priced broadband service

A new report by BroadbandNow finds that 146 million people or about 45 percent of the US population lack access to a low-priced residential wired broadband plans, which are defined as “plans with prices less than or equal to the 20th percentile of all qualifying broadband plan prices within a given technology (such as fiber, DSL, or cable).”

The report also finds that customers in rural areas pay a higher price per megabit than those in urban areas. Additionally, customers in states with higher median incomes pay less for broadband than those in states with lower median incomes. Among broadband technologies, fiber has the lowest average price per megabit ($0.48), followed by cable ($0.65), and DSL ($1.53).

Links:

Digital divide: broadband pricing by state, zip code, and income level (BroadbandNow, Jan 4, 2019)