Massive Gigabit “Coverage” Increase Highlights How Unreliable FCC Broadband Data Can Be

Progress on gigabit deployment in the US has been greatly exaggerated. This is true for the state of the internet in general. However, the gigabit landscape is a subsection worth examining more closely, as it is the connectivity threshold that will be required to solve the speed and functionality divides of the near future. The Federal Communications Commission claims that gigabit availability has ballooned from 4% in 2016 to 84% in 2020. Our own estimates, however, show that gigabit plan access has actually gone from 2.4% in the same year to 56% in 2020.

• According to the FCC, gigabit internet availability has seen explosive growth over the past four years, rising from just 4% in 2016 to over 84% in 2020. 
• These numbers aren’t reflective of consumer reality, however, with only 56% of Americans having an active gigabit plan in their zip code in 2020 (even this number is likely overstated). 
• We manually checked 75 addresses in zip codes where the FCC shows gigabit coverage, but BroadbandNow data shows that there is not an internet plan sold at that speed.  We checked these addresses by calling internet service providers and asking if gigabit service was available.  In all 75 cases, none of them had a gigabit service available.
• In areas where gigabit service is available, pricing has stabilized somewhat: median price for specific plans has dropped by 27%, from $109.00 in 2016 to $79.99 today. 
• In 2016, 115 providers were servicing residents in 32 states. In 2020, 479 providers now claim gigabit coverage to areas in all 50 states.