Want 'Cheaper' Internet? Consider a Faster Tier of Service

If you think you're paying a lot for your internet connection, chances are you also think your connection is pretty slow. A new report on broadband pricing and how much it's changed in the last six years reveals that higher-speed tiers have decreased in price the most, while fiber users are consistently getting a better deal than those with cable.

的report comes from BroadbandNow(Opens in a new window), which provides the pricing information we use in ourBest Work-From-Home Citiesstory (2022 version coming soon). It looks at the pricing for various speed plans across 50 ISPs in the US from 2016 to today, further breaking the pricing changes down by calendar quarter. The technologies examined included cable, fiber, DSL, and fixed wireless technology. (Starlinkwasn't really a thing when this started, and no one counts the other satellite providers as "high-speed broadband.")

价格下降是戏剧性的。为用户与connections that top 500Mbps (megabits per second), pricing decreased by an average of 42% since 2016. There was also a pretty dramatic drop for those with 200-499Mbps (down 35%) and 100-199Mbps (33%). The tier with the least amount of price shift was between 25-99Mbps—it went down just 14%.

Cable can provide any of those speeds. But fiber connections offer better savings, no matter the speed tier, though they're not as widely available as cable.

Some tiers are a little more competitive, though, such as bottom-rung broadband at 25-99Mbps. That might also explain why the price hasn't dropped there as much.

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But jump up to the 500Mbps and above plans and the pricing difference is stark.

It looks like you can do even better price-wise if you can find a fixed wireless connection.BroadbandNow(Opens in a new window)included fixed wireless plans from ISPs such as Agile Networks, BarrierFree, Everywhere Wireless, NextLink, Phoenix Internet, and Wisper ISP, among others, in the analysis, but you'll probably have to search locally for them. For the big names providing true high speeds with cable and fiber, check out our story on theFastest ISPs.