One-Third of Americans Still Lack Real Home Broadband Competition

A full third of American census blocks only have one non-satellite option for 10Mbps home broadband, a new report from the FCC says.

According to the latest Internet Access Services Report, as of the end of 2015, only 66 percent of surveyed census blocks had two fixed broadband options that aren't satellite and deliver 10Mbps down. Only 78 percent of the blocks had two non-satellite options for 3Mbps down.

That leaves roughly a third of the country's population (because of the variation in census block populations) with just one provider for reasonably priced, fast home Internet connections. It's usually a cable company; 72 percent of all 10Mbps or higher home Internet connections in the US were cable at the end of last year, according to the report.

When you get even faster, and thus DSL falls away, competition looks even worse. At the end of 2015, only 24 percent of census blocks had two providers for 25Mbps or faster Internet.

Where competition exists, people are taking advantage of it. From June 2014 to December 2015, fiber connections grew by 20 percent to 9.5 million, the report said. Fast cable connections grew too, by 15 percent to 55.7 million, so there's clearly a hunger for fast home Internet that's raising all boats.

And competition has been getting better, very slowly. That 66 percent is up from the end of 2014, when only 61 percent of Americans had two non-satellite choices.

What Do You Have Against Satellite?

I'm counting out satellite as a competitor because it's expensive and few people use it.

Satellite Internet covers more than 99 percent of the country, the FCC notes. According to satellite provider Exede, it can offer up to 25Mbps speeds. But satellite broadband tends to be either strictly data-capped or very expensive, with 18GB of fast data from Exede costing $90/month and 150GB costing $120/month. Only about 2 percent of 10Mbps or greater customers in the US use satellite, the report said.

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There's also the open question of whether mobile Internet should be considered home broadband competition. Seventy-one percent of US broadband connections are actually mobile wireless, the FCC report says, dwarfing cable and every other technology.

But mobile connections are also often capped, and are much more expensive per gigabyte than wired home broadband. While Sprint and T-Mobile allow unlimited data on mobile phones, they block you from using unlimited data on PCs, televisions, and other big-screen electronics.

That means for gaming, schoolwork, office work, and family entertainment, wired home Internet is still often the best choice. And with both Verizon Fios and Google Fiber having halted further buildout, there's been a pause in new competitive options. Mobile providers may step up their competitive game soon, though, as Verizon aims to start trialing wireless 5G home Internet in 2017.