Home Broadband Capacity Might Not be the "Problem" We Sometimes Think

“How much bandwidth do you need?” is always a complicated and subjective matter. But some studies might suggest that consumers “need” far less than internet service providers often suggest. 

Some older studies suggested that having access at relatively moderate speeds (25 Mbps to 30 Mbps) does correlate with productivity. Over time, those minimums arguably have increased. 

It appears to be much harder to show correlations at higher speeds. 

And for consumers, “productivity” might not be the best metric. “Value,” as in the ability to enable video or audio streaming or gaming, might be the more-relevant measure. And even there, “speed” might be less important than data allowances. 

For businesses, higher speeds also might not correlate so directly with value. Productivity gains often depend on how the bandwidth is used. In other words, some entities seem to be better at wringing value out of the access because their business processes are more developed. 

Study	Context	Speed Threshold	Findings on Productivity Effects Beyond Threshold
Rohman & Bohlin (2012)	OECD countries	~10 Mbps	Doubling speed had a diminishing GDP impact (0.3% growth); higher speeds showed smaller, less consistent gains.
Whitacre et al. (2014)	U.S. counties	~25 Mbps	Speeds above 25 Mbps had inconsistent effects on employment/business growth, especially in rural areas.
Briglauer et al. (2021)	German counties	~50 Mbps	Beyond 50 Mbps, productivity effects were uncertain, varying by sector; no uniform gain across firms.
Lobo et al. (2020)	Rural Missouri, USA	~100 Mbps	No clear productivity boost in employment/education/health; benefits skewed to quality-of-life, not economic.
Akerman et al. (2015)	Norwegian firms	~10 Mbps	Speeds above 10 Mbps showed uneven productivity gains, limited by worker skills rather than bandwidth itself.