The FCC has released its Sixth Report, which provides comparative international information on broadband services and, where possible, a year-to-year measure of the extent of broadband service capability in the United States and selected countries. For the first time, this report includes global comparisons of mobile broadband (LTE) speeds, and not just fixed broadband services. Among the highlights of the Sixth Report are the following:
- The United States ranked 10th out of 28 countries in 2016 in terms of actual download speeds for fixed broadband services (55.07 Mbps) weighted by the number of tests in each city, which is an improvement from a ranking of 11th in 2015 (40.38 Mbps) and 15th (28.09 Mbps) in 2014.
- The United States ranked 24th out of 28 countries in both 2015 (15.58 Mbps) and 2016 (19.98 Mbps) when it comes to actual mobile broadband download speeds. The U.S.’s ranking in 2014 was 17th out of 28 countries.
- For fixed broadband prices, when using a method comparing unweighted average prices, the United States ranks 18th out of 23 countries that offer fixed standalone broadband plans with download speeds of at least 25 Mbps and less than 100 Mbps, and 26th out of 28 countries that have fixed download speeds of 100 Mbps or greater. However, when taking into account bundled plans with fixed broadband and video services, the United States ranks 10th out of 20 countries.
- For mobile broadband prices, when using a method comparing unweighted average prices, the United States ranks 18th out of 22 countries that offer individual plans with data usage allowances of 2 GB or less and 21st out of 28 countries that offer individual plans with data usage allowances greater than 10 GB.
- When it comes to deployment of broadband services, the United States as of June 2016 had fixed, high-speed broadband to 90 percent of all households and 62 percent of all rural households, which is up slightly from 89 percent and 58 percent, respectively, when measured in 2015. These values equate to the United States being ranked 11th out of 22 countries when it comes to fixed broadband deployment. When it comes to mobile LTE deployment, the United States now has 99 percent of all households and 98 percent of all rural households.
The United States was compared to 26 OECD countries in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, and non-OECD countries Chile and Mexico.
