Tyler Cooper of BroadbandNow checked claims of gigabit service from the FCC. He founded that the carriers did not actually sell "gigabit" to a quarter of the claimed homes. Only 56% of addresses listed as "gigabit" could be served at over 900 Mbps. I reviewed the findings with him. For certainty, more than 75 addresses need to be tested but his methods were sensible.
Joe Biden wants to spend $20B to bring broadband to unserved rural areas and others in DC are talking $50-80 billion. Given that the recent FCC auction promises to bring 100 Mbps to about 98% of the country, that's a mistake - unless all the data we have being used is mistaken.
95% of the kids without connections could have one if the money is there. Comcast and Chicago are connecting all the kids for ~$10/month. Charter, T-Mobile, Cox, Verizon, and AT&T have similar programs. This is a "just do it."
Comcast claims "nearly all of 58 million homes" can receive a gigabit. Charter says it offers gigabit "across our entire footprint." The two reach 80% of the U.S. The DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade has been completed across almost all of the U.S. and I thought would almost always deliver the gig. Tyler's data have me looking closer.
Charter: We continue to offer 400 Mbps, our Ultra product and our Spectrum Internet Gig tier across our entire footprint. (>50 million)
BroadbandNow’s report is based on comparing FCC’s reported coverage to its analysis of locally available gigabit speed plans. BroadbandNow shows that gigabit speeds are only available to 56 percent of the population, significantly less than the 84 percent that the FCC reports. This was further validated by manually checking 75 addresses in zip codes where the FCC shows coverage but BroadbandNow does not show an available plan.
Even Commissioner Mike O'Reilly has said the FCC data is garbage, but something apparently is not right in the cable figures.