Without any question, the latest Federal Communications Commission report on U.S. broadband is going to be criticized. The data overstates deployment, it will be argued. Some might argue 25 Mbps is not broadband. The thrust of the complaints will be that the U.S. digital divide is either not closing or not closing fast enough. Some conceivably will argue the divide is getting worse.
But coverage and speeds are growing. Sure, there is a gap between rural and urban. There likely always will be some gap. But the gaps are closing.
All methodological shortcomings noted, it is hard to argue that the U.S. speeds are too low, or getting worse. There really is not any evidence for that view. In 2018 alone, U.S. average internet access speed on fixed networks grew 36 percent, according to Ookla Speedtest.
In 2019, U.S. fixed internet service provider were 96 Mbps downstream, according to Speedtest. Even mobile average speeds were in the 33 Mbps range in 2018.
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