Tier Flattening: AT&T and Verizon Home Customers Pay a High Price for Slow Internet

In recent years AT&T and Verizon have eliminated their cheaper rate tiers for low and mid-speed Internet access, except at the very slowest levels. Each company now charges essentially identical monthly prices – $63-$65 a month after first-year discounts have ended – for home wireline broadband connections at almost any speed up to 100/100 Mbps fiber service. This policy of upward “tier flattening” raises the cost of Internet access for urban and rural AT&T and Verizon customers who only have access to the oldest, slowest legacy infrastructure. Affordability is the greatest barrier to increased home broadband subscriptions. In the United States, broadband is becoming faster for some households and more expensive for others.