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CenterFuse Broadband Feasibility Report The FCC also looks at the availability of broadband by county, meaning the percentage of homes that could buy broadband at various speeds. Here's what the FCC reported to Congress in 2020: Kittitas County Urban population: 25,820 % that can buy at least 25/3 broadband 99.6% % with 4G LTE coverage 100.0% % with both 99.6% Rural population: 21,544 % that can buy at least 25/3 broadband 62.6% % with 4G LTE coverage 98.9% % with both 62.4% How Does the US Rank with the Rest of the World? Cable Company from the United Kingdom has been gathering data each year that compares broadband speeds and prices from around the world. The most recent report on broadband speeds is from 2019.7 The rankings are based upon many millions of speed tests, and 2019 average download speed for the US is based upon over 132 million speed tests. The US ranked 15th in the world in 2019 with a national average download speed of 32.89 Mbps. We are behind countries like Taiwan, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Belgium, and others. The average speeds in the US have been increasing and was 25.86 Mbps in 2018 and 20.00 Mbps in 2017. During that time, the US climbed from 21St fastest to the current rank of 15th. The speed increases are largely due to upgrades in speeds in urban areas by cable companies, although there are also fiber-to-the-home builds in both urban and rural markets across the country. The Gap in Broadband Affordability The FCC reports that broadband adoption for the country is around 87%. Even after accounting for the rural areas that have no broadband option, there are many millions of customers that can get broadband at their homes, but that do not buy it.Numerous studies and surveys have asked people why they don't buy broadband when it's available. The number one reason that's always cited is price—people say they can't afford broadband. Statistics on Affordability In larger cities it's somewhat easy to equate broadband penetration rates to household incomes. This is due to the fact that a Census block in a city might be as small as a block or two, and it's easy to match Census data to broadband data from the FCC. 7 Broadband speeds around the world. https://www.cable.co.uklbroadband/speedlworldwide-speed-league/ Page 43