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Despite the lack of new reports, Comcast, Time Warner Cable,

June 29, 2019 by Paul Fletcher

Despite the lack of new reports, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and others seem to have been doing a good job of monitoring the speed-to-device (TDD) tradeoff. (See How Comcast and Verizon Are Sinking Time Warner Cable.)

The results so far, however, seem mixed.

The most recent Measuring Broadband America report found that consumers were only getting about 1,500 Mbps, or about 2.5 percent of the advertised speeds Verizon customers were getting, according to a new Verizon Measuring Broadband America report published by the Cable and Telecommunications Policy Institute (CTPI).

Here's an example of the new data:

(The data is the same as last year's study.)

(See also here and here.)

The average speeds the FCC reported on average are 5.3, or about 7 percent of the advertised speed Verizon customers were getting. That's the same as Comcast's average of 4.3 Mbps. And here's the data for Comcast's average of 4.1 Mbps, which is also the same as last year's report:

(Cable and Telecommunications Policy Institute/CTPI 2014)

While Comcast's average TDD is about 4 percent, it's still about 2 percent faster than Verizon's, which is 4 percent faster than Verizon's, according to the Verizon survey.

"If the FCC were to continue to track TDD to device type, it seems likely that the speed-to-device tradeoff will end up being somewhat less significant than is generally the case," said Dan Friel, president of the Cable and Telecommunications Policy Institute. "But in the meantime, though, I don't see the FCC failing to provide a more meaningful picture of the tradeoff between speed and device type."

The same can be said for Verizon. At 3.7 Mbps, Verizon customers get a bit less than 7 percent of the advertised speed.

While Verizon's average TDD is about 4 percent, it's still about 2 percent faster than Verizon's, which is 4 percent faster than Verizon's, according to Verizon survey.

"It seems likely that the speed-to-device tradeoff will end up being somewhat less significant than is generally the case," Friel said.

In other words, if the FCC wants to have as much impact on speed as the other ISPs, it has to be more efficient in managing customer speeds, which isn't something that Comcast or Time Warner Cable have been able to do.

To get to this point,