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As a non-American, the first time I heard about the situation with broadband monopolies in the US, it was hard for me to believe! Apparently in huge parts of th

As a non-American, the first time I heard about the situation with broadband monopolies in the US, it was hard for me to believe! Apparently in huge parts of the country you can only choose one single provider? Is that true just in "regional areas" or in suburbs and urban areas too? Are there stats about how much of the population has no choice? Edit: the article gives numbers in terms of how many people have access to broadband (and how many haven't) - but what I'm asking is different - what percentage of the population can connect to one and only one broadband provider, based on their location?

pkaye 6y ago
This the FCC statistics on broadband availability. https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/#/area-comparison?version=jun2019&tech=acfosw&speed=25_3&searchtype=county https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/#/area-comparison?version=jun20...
- mastazi 6y ago
  Thank you! this is what I was looking for!
  - aidenn0 6y ago
    Don't forget to click the little "gear" icon and uncheck "Satelite" from the options; you see 90%+ with two or more 25/3 options because there are two satelite providers that meet this bar.
    - mastazi 6y ago
      thanks that's a very important difference
aidenn0 6y ago
If DSL counts as broadband, then it's about 1/4 the population, if DSL does not count as broadband then it's about 80% of the population. Note that the FCC numbers linked elsewhere are optimistic because of their coarse granularity; if there is a single household with two options in a census region, then all of the population is counted as having it. There's obviously the issues with suburban and rural housing, where density is insufficient for two last-mile solutions (and all local-loop unbundling regulations were so successful in the late 90s that the telecom companies lobbied them out of existence). Something less talked about are the urban apartments where you can only get broadband from the company that contracts with your landlord. If someone that doesn't use the broadband can pick which broadband you use from several options, does that count as competition?

pkaye 6y ago

This the FCC statistics on broadband availability. https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/#/area-comparison?version=jun2019&tech=acfosw&speed=25_3&searchtype=county https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/#/area-comparison?version=jun20...

mastazi 6y ago
Thank you! this is what I was looking for!
- aidenn0 6y ago
  Don't forget to click the little "gear" icon and uncheck "Satelite" from the options; you see 90%+ with two or more 25/3 options because there are two satelite providers that meet this bar.
  - mastazi 6y ago
    thanks that's a very important difference

aidenn0 6y ago

If DSL counts as broadband, then it's about 1/4 the population, if DSL does not count as broadband then it's about 80% of the population. Note that the FCC numbers linked elsewhere are optimistic because of their coarse granularity; if there is a single household with two options in a census region, then all of the population is counted as having it. There's obviously the issues with suburban and rural housing, where density is insufficient for two last-mile solutions (and all local-loop unbundling regulations were so successful in the late 90s that the telecom companies lobbied them out of existence). Something less talked about are the urban apartments where you can only get broadband from the company that contracts with your landlord. If someone that doesn't use the broadband can pick which broadband you use from several options, does that count as competition?