FCC says mobile phone costs down
The cost of mobile telephone service plunged last year by the highest margin on record, according to new data published by the Federal Communications Commission, as Google and cable carriers elbow into the market dominated by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
The FCC released the new estimates this week as appendices to a November report on the state of broadband competition in the U.S., assessing cable and telephone carriers as well as providers of wireless services.
Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the FCC calculated a 10.8 percent drop last year in the consumer price index for wireless telephone service, even as CPI crept up 1.7 percent for the overall economy.
On average nationally, mobile subscribers paid less than $39 a month for service, with many paying far more depending on where they live and levels of service in their contracts.
The FCC lists Connecticut as one of just three states last year to have had 100 percent coverage for 4G mobile service, along with New Jersey and Rhode Island, with the overall U.S. coverage rate estimated at 89 percent, though at just 69 percent in rural areas.
Coverage estimates are based on carrier tests, with the FCC announcing separately on Friday an audit of the accuracy of those tests, as it fields ongoing complaints of inadequate service from wireless customers in rural areas.
Cable, wireless to compete
Verizon and AT&T are now in a race to roll out 5G services that will for the first time give homeowners a wireless option for broadband service in the home, even as cable companies like Altice USA, Charter Communications and Comcast offer new mobile telephone services to their broadband and TV subscribers.
In the FCC study, Connecticut continues to trail neighboring states for traditional broadband internet speeds as determined by Ookla, whose Speedtest.net website calculates an average download speed of 64 megabits per second statewide. In addition to Altice USA, Charter and Comcast, other major carriers offering broadband in Connecticut include Cox Communications and Frontier Communications.
Altice USA is on the cusp of unveiling a new Optimum fiber optic internet service in portions of southwestern Connecticut that will have initial speeds of a gigabit per second — and eventually 10 times that rate — with the company aiming to have fiber capabilities across its entire Optimum territory base within five years.
“We’re going to see a significant acceleration going into 2019 of the rollout, I think,” said Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei, during an early November conference call with analysts. “Maybe it takes us an extra year or so to complete the last 10-20 percent of the footprint, because of the permitting process associated with local communities, but by and large the bulk of it will definitely (be done) in five years.”