Changing Rules and Regulations Shake up the US Broadband Market

A series of upcoming changes stand to substantially impact residential broadband market dynamics.

1. The Affordable Connectivity Program is set to run out of funding in April/May of 2024. This will impact the over 23M American households that were receiving ACP discounts, including over 4.5M households that were first-time home internet subscribers. While broadband is a vital amenity for many, these first-time subscribers are at the greatest risk of churning and may switch to mobile-only service or disconnect entirely.
2. The broadband “nutrition” label requirement is set to go into effect in April 2024 for ISPs with over 100K subscribers and October 2024 for smaller players. ISPs will be required to s how the base monthly price, additional fees, promotional rates, term commitments, bundling options, data allowance and charges, average download and upload speeds and latency, and certain additional disclosures.
3. he FCC has redefined broadband as having a downlink speed of at least 100Mbps and an uplink of 25Mbps. Parks Associates consumer surveys find that among home internet households that know both their uplink and downlink speeds, some 21% no longer qualify as receiving broadband internet service.
4. The FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would ban bulk billing agreements from MDUs. This proposed rule will likely impact MDU appetite for managed Wi-Fi deployments, which are often financed through resident broadband amenity fees, as well as for smart device deployments that typically leverage these networks.

ISPs should expect additional regulatory changes throughout 2024 and be prepared to react quickly to changing market dynamics. Additional likely changes include the return of Title II Net Neutrality and improved data privacy and cybersecurity protections.

This is an excerpt from Parks Associates Home Services DashboardQ4 2023 written by Kristen Hanich , Research Director, Parks Associates.

The Home Services Dashboard visualizes the most important metrics informing the strategic decision making of companies providing communications services to the home.?

Consumer Insights Dashboards present survey-based consumer research that tracks the movement of foundational market metrics, such as product or service adoption, household spending intentions, churn, and key tracking metrics on leading industry players.

Parks Associates surveys 10,000 - 8,000 U.S internet households every quarter, with additional surveys completed throughout the year.

The survey results represent demographics for all US internet households, 91% of all US households.???Table of Contents include:

Executive Summary? ????????????????

Industry Benchmarks??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

? Internet Adoption in US Households

? Home Service Subscription

? Adoption of Standalone vs. Bundled Services

? Adoption of Home Service Packages

? Adoption of Mobile and Internet Bundles

? ARPU of Total Home Services

? ARPU of Standalone Home Service

? ARPU of Bundled Home Service

? ARPU of Most Common Home Service Packages

Home Service Provider NPS ?

? Net Promoter Score by Sector – Trending (2019-2023)

? Net Promoter Score of Home Service Providers

? Net Promoter Score of Home Internet Providers’ Services

? Net Promoter Score of Home Phone Providers’ Services

? Net Promoter Score of Mobile Providers’ Services

? Net Promoter Score of Traditional Pay-TV Providers’ Services

? Net Promoter Score of? Professional Security System Monitoring Providers

Broadband Close-Up?

? Market Share of Top Ten Residential Home Internet Providers

? Residential Fiber and Fixed Wireless Trends: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile

Appendix?