1FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler: More Competition Needed in High-Speed 
Broadband Marketplace
Speaking at 1776, a startup incubator in Washington, D.C., FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler addressed the 
state of competition in the market for high-speed broadband. In his prepared remarks, Chairman 
Wheeler told an audience of technology startups, innovators, consumer advocates and industry that 
“meaningful competition for high-speed wired broadband is lacking and Americans need more 
competitive choices for faster and better Internet connections, both to take advantage of today’s new 
services, and to incentivize the development of tomorrow’s innovations.” The Chairman laid out his 
Agenda for Broadband Competition – a policy framework aimed at helping deliver meaningful
competitive choices for high-speed Internet to consumers and innovators. 
Consumers, innovators and businesses demand faster, better high-speed Internet. As these demands 
are changing, competition in the broadband marketplace isn’t keeping pace. The FCC’s current definition 
of broadband is 4 Mbps download speed/1 Mbps upload speed. But 60 percent of peak-period Internet 
activity consists of delivering bandwidth-intensive content, like video. 
By most calculations, a single HD movie requires 5 Mbps and super HD requires 7 Mbps of download 
speed. The average U.S. Internet-connected homes have six connected devices – televisions, desktops, 
laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.  When those devices are in use at the same time, it’s not difficult to 
strain the capacity of a 25 Mbps connection, and completely overwhelm a 4 Mbps connection.
Most American homes lack competitive choices for fixed high-speed Internet.
One in five American homes does not have access to high-speed Internet, the essential infrastructure of 
the 21
st
century economy, of 25 Mbps. 
Source: NTIA, State Broadband Initiative Data (Dec. 2013); FCC
2In the 25 Mbps downstream/ 3 Mbps upstream speed tier: 
? 20 percent of American homes do not have access to high-speed Internet Service.
? 55.3 percent of homes have access to only one provider. 
? Taken together, nearly 75 percent of homes have no choice in providers.
Even at lower speeds, there are too many American homes that lack competitive choice.
In the mid-tier 10 Mbps downstream/1 Mbps upstream:
? Only 30.3 percent of homes have a choice of one provider.
? 8.4 percent of homes have no provider offering these speeds. 
? Taken together, nearly 39 percent of homes have no choice in providers.
At the current FCC benchmark for high-speed Internet service, 4 Mbps downstream/1 Mpbs upstream, 
the majority of Americans have a choice of only two providers. 
Rural Americans enjoy even less competition, fewer high-speed Internet service and wireless choices.
? Nearly one-fourth of Americans who live in rural areas —14.5 million people—lack access to the 
most basic broadband services (4 Mbps up/1 Mbps down).  
? Americans living in urban areas are three times more likely to have access to Next Generation 
broadband than Americans in rural areas. 
? Only 37 percent of rural consumers are covered by at least four 3G or 4G mobile wireless 
providers’ networks.  
More Competition Leads to Better, Faster, Cheaper Broadband
? Kansas saw a 97 percent surge in speeds to 34.4 Mbps after Google announced its fiber 
deployment – the largest year over year jump in bandwidth of any state in the country. 
Similar competitive responses occurred in Austin with TWC announcing that it will offer 
300 Mbps – a six fold increase as well as plans to cover Austin in a Wi-Fi network and AT&T 
announcing plans to build its own gigabit network.
? Cox and CenturyLink have announced plans to roll out 1 Gbps service in portions of their 
territories, including in areas where they compete with one another such as Omaha, Phoenix 
and Las Vegas, among others.
? After Lafayette, LA launched its fiber service, Cox selected Lafayette, LA as the first market for its 
50 Mbps DOCSIS 3.0 service tier.
FCC Chairman Wheeler laid out a policy framework – the Agenda for Broadband Competition – to help 
deliver greater competition and more choice for consumers and businesses. The principles are: 
? One: Where competition exists, the Commission will protect it. 
? Two: Where greater competition can exist, we will encourage it.
? Three: Where meaningful competition is not available, the Commission will work to create it.
? Four: Where competition cannot be expected to exist, we must shoulder the responsibility of 
promoting the deployment of broadband for the sake of consumers and innovators.