Broadband Subscriptions Are Up...But What's Behind the Numbers?

Back in April, a Pew Research Center survey found that 53% of U.S. adults say the internet has been essential for them personally during the pandemic. Another 34% say it has been important. Those attitudes are reflected in increased traffic over home broadband networks. More people and more devices are connecting to do more things while sheltered at home. With millions of people not yet connected to broadband networks -- either because they are unavailable or unaffordable -- many a public interest policy wonk (including me) have been rooting for a massive upswing in internet subscriptions. As a Washington Post editorial highlighted this week, for students who can’t access live-streamed classes, for the ill who can’t virtually consult with a doctor, for isolated individuals who can’t find human connection on their laptop screens, we all need broadband and we need it now. Earlier this month, Leichtman Research Group found that the largest broadband service providers -- the cable and telephone companies that serve about 96% of the total broadband market -- added 1,165,000 new subscribers in the first quarter of this year. To put that number into perspective, just over 42% of all new broadband subscribers who signed up in the last year did so in January, February, and March. In fact, the first quarter of 2020 saw more new broadband subscribers than in any quarter since 2015. In comparison, there were just 955,000 new subscribers in the first quarter of 2019.