Analysis of 22K US broadband bills highlights issues: far higher average cost than in Europe at $75/month, little carrier choice, bogus charges, and more
The Verge and Consumer Reports collected 22,000 internet bills to find out how Americans are getting online. They paint an ugly picture.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Verge and Consumer Reports' 22,000-bill dataset arrives a month after [[a:984021|The Markup's 38-city analysis found AT&T, Verizon, and other carriers selling slower service at the same price in lower-income, least-white neighborhoods]]. It converts that pattern from a city-by-city snapshot into bill-level evidence.
It also extends a longer arc: earlier research showed [[a:932215|millions of Americans paying the same price for very slow broadband as customers with much faster service]], while critics have long argued the FCC's National Broadband Map overstates available ISPs and omits pricing entirely. Crowdsourced bills are filling the pricing gap the official data leaves open.
First-order effects
- Consumers holding these bills now have documented instances of bogus charges, giving them and advocacy groups like Consumer Reports itemized ammunition against carriers such as AT&T and Verizon.
- Carriers face direct scrutiny of a $75/month average that the analysis places well above European levels, on top of the same-price-slower-service pattern already documented in their urban footprints.
Second-order effects
- The FCC comes under renewed pressure to fix its broadband map — which critics say overstates ISP availability and lacks pricing data — because the bill dataset demonstrates what granular, price-inclusive reporting would reveal.
- With carrier choice documented as thin, competing providers and municipal alternatives gain a marketing opening on price transparency, since incumbents' fee-laden bills are now publicly comparable.
Third-order effects
- If low carrier choice persists alongside opaque billing, the likely structural response is mandated price and fee disclosure in broadband advertising and mapping, shifting the burden of proof from consumers to carriers.
- The pattern points toward consumer-crowdsourced datasets becoming a standing check on official broadband statistics, given the map's documented history of overstating availability.
The trend: US broadband remains a high-price, low-choice market where crowdsourced consumer data, not official FCC statistics, is increasingly driving pricing scrutiny.