More government intervention in broadband wireless isn’t necessary as study shows U.S. mobile broadband speeds among fastest in world

A new study refutes a common refrain that U.S. internet speeds lag behind other countries. Building on his previous work on fixed broadband speeds, George Ford of the Phoenix Center found that American wireless broadband speeds are also among the best in the world. It is clear that the private sector, not the government, is the driving force behind this good news.

In a report released at the end of Match, 2022, Ford (the Phoenix Center’s chief economist) reports that in an examination of cities in nearly 100 higher-income countries, U.S. cities enjoy wireless internet speeds nearly twice the worldwide average. The average download speed of nearly 132 Megabits per second ranks the U.S. 14^th among the 98 nations studied, which put America in the top 15 percent of all countries’ averages. Ford examined 4,480 cities across the world, 910 of those in the U.S.

Ford’s previous research in February found that the U.S. compared favorably in fixed broadband speeds to the rest of the globe. In both studies, Ford used speed data from Ookla’s Open Data Initiative.

“Once again, I find that across many cities located in nearly one hundred nations, U.S. broadband speeds are found to be well above average,” Ford said. “The evidence continues to belie the claim of lagging broadband speeds in the United States.”

Average domestic upload wireless speeds measured at 17.6 Mbps, which put the U.S. in line with other nations. Ford notes that while the U.S. ranks 40^th of 98 countries in that metric, “the differences in upload speeds are not very large across countries.”

Ford’s research comparing speeds across the globe comes at a time when critics claim the private sector hasn’t done its job as they push for more taxpayer funding for broadband expansion or the creation of government-owned broadband networks. But the Phoenix Center studies show that the fixed and wireless networks created by the private sector are indeed robust.

Recent years have also seen a big push for reallocating more spectrum for commercial internet usage, although federal government stakeholders have pushed back against the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) plans. From the Department of Transportation to the Department of Defense to the Federal Aviation Administration, government officials have balked at certain aspects of spectrum usage.

“The U.S. mobile wireless industry is providing globally exceptional broadband services,” Ford said. “Accordingly, identifying additional spectrum that can be repurposed for commercial use and reauthorizing the FCC’s spectrum auction authority should remain high policy priorities.”

Johnny Kampis is director of telecom policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.