Report Finds That Broadband Prices Continue To Decline

As Phoenix Center researcher George Ford rightly notes in a recent report on the broadband pricing, affordability has emerged as a defining political issue in telecommunications. His recently released study points out that, in a world of rising prices, the cost of high-speed internet continues to drop—despite arguments to the contrary.

Using data from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Urban Rate Survey, John Horrigan of the Benton Institute  declared in January that broadband prices increased from 2024 to 2025. Horrigan noted that the overall 4.8 percent price increase was driven largely by the increased availability and popularity of more expensive plans with symmetrical speeds of 2 gigabits per second and higher.

Ford calls Horrigan’s claim of a 4.8-percent increase a “biased estimate of the price change,” and the result of sample composition that doesn’t consider the practical speeds and prices that most consumers choose to pay.

Ford points out that the mean broadband speed increased from about 675 Mbps in 2024 to 1.15 Gbps in 2025, having nearly doubled. The maximum broadband speed available increased from 5 Gbps in 2024 to 100 Gbps last year, as internet technology improved dramatically.

“Of course, these very high speeds have much higher prices, on average, and are of interest primarily to specialized commercial applications,” Ford wrote. “Horrigan ignores this compositional shift.”

The Census Bureau tries to maintain comparable quality over time when computing price indexes, Ford notes, since failing to do so overstates price increases or understates price declines.

In comparison, Arthur Menko of USTelecom reported that broadband prices fell 8.7 percent in 2025. Menko limited his analysis to download speeds between 100 and 940 Megabits per second, which restricted his sample size to the minimum broadband speed as defined by the FCC and the maximum speed typically purchased by consumers.

“The divergence in estimates of price changes stems from a fundamental measurement challenge well-known to economists,” Ford wrote. “When the mix of available broadband service changes rapidly – with providers adding faster tiers, retiring slower plans, and upgrading speeds at existing price points – simple price comparisons become misleading.”

The FCC data does not include low-income discount plans offered by many broadband providers, such as Comcast’s Internet Essentials and AT&T’s Access. Therefore, the Urban Rate Survey data cannot be used to evaluate price offers for low-income households, Ford noted.

In his examination, Ford used a similar methodology as Menko, largely fueled by the overarching question of how much average prices would change if consumers continued to purchase the same mix of services as available in 2024. Ford found declines at all speed tiers between 25 Mbps and 1 Gbps. The 500 Mbps level saw a drop of 13 percent, the highest decrease in the broadband-qualifying tiers.

Ford also reported a drop in prices in all forms of common broadband-deliverable technology, including cable, fiber, fixed wireless, and DSL. Fixed wireless, which continues to emerge as a sufficient substitute for areas too expensive to install fiber infrastructure, saw the biggest drop at more than 12 percent.

Ford concluded that, accounting for composition changes in broadband tiers, the total average price decrease falls into the range of 7 to 9 percent. He argued that close attention to composition effects will remain essential to informed policy debate.

“Given the prominence of affordability concerns in current policy discussions, these methodological distinctions have direct implications for regulatory design,” Ford wrote. “These finds have direct policy relevance: claims of rising broadband prices – used to justify extended subsidies and regulation – are not supported by properly measured price trends.”

Ford’s (and Menko’s) study shows that broadband prices continue to trend in the right direction, as reduced regulations under the Trump administration have benefited consumers and their wallets. Researchers, pundits, and policymakers ought not to ignore this pivotal progress.