The US Has Really Expensive Internet and It's Getting Worse
Denis Rozhnovsky/Shutterstock.com
Among the 34 member countries of the OECD, the US has the fourth most expensive fixed-line broadband services.
Americans love to complain about how their internet service is slow, unreliable, and above all else, expensive, but it seems their whining is totally justified.
At least when it comes to cost. Among the 34 member countries of the OECD, the US has the fourth most expensive fixed-line broadband services, according to new figures released by the organization (download required). The only places where high-speed fixed-line internet—33 gigabits of data at speeds of 15 megabits per second—is more expensive, at purchasing power parity (i.e., relative to local prices), are Chile, Luxembourg, and Spain.
And while in those three countries broadband costs have come down or stayed still in the last two years, the US, as the above chart from the OCED shows, is among the countries where it has increased. No wonder people are so alarmed about big mergers between the cable companies from which most Americans get their internet services.
( Image via Denis Rozhnovsky / Shutterstock.com )