Price, Not Availability, is 100-Mbps Problem

The real problem with very high speed (100 Mbps or higher) Internet access in the United States is the cost, not the availability, one might argue.

Some 82 percent of U.S. homes can buy Internet access of speeds of at least 100 Mbps, from a cable operator. About 18 percent of homes can buy fiber to home services.

Vectored DSL might allow many telcos to offer 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps, even if fiber is not pulled all the way to the home.

At least 235 U.S. service providers offer services at 50 Mbps or more, 136 offer 100 Mbps or more and 64 offer gigabit speeds. Most of the 100 Mbps and gigabit providers focus on the business market, given the retail prices, it is fair to say. But most cable operators happily sell 100 Mbps to consumers.

The issue really is price. Not many consumers are willing to pay $110 for a 100-Mbps connection bought with a triple play offer, or $200 on a standalone basis. In the past, such services cost as much as $300 a month.

The good news is that prices per Mbps prices per Mbps have been dropping as headline speeds have grown. Google Fiber has a cost per Mbps of about seven cents, where many offers have costs of $2 or more per Mbps of speed.