# Price of Broadband Connectivity **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 8, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-broadband-connectivity/273661 "2004-11-08T16:51:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-broadband-connectivity/273661/1 "2004-11-08T16:51:06Z")
My father just moved into a new home, and has given me the task of connecting him to the net. I’ve ruled out a dial-up connection as being 1) too much for too little, given that he has one phone line and isn’t about to pay for another, and 2) too difficult for him to work. Anyway, I’ve been comparing prices for cable, DSL, etc. This got me thinking about a question that is tangentially related to my real-life experience… what is the national average price that internet users (we’ll consider just personal users, not businesses) pay for broadband connectivity? I’m sure anecdotal evidence will yield similar results (I’m paying $39.99/month, I believe, for cable internet), but to satiate my curiosity, I want facts. Googling variations of broadband average price national, etc. hasn’t helped much… but I’m sure someone has done some research (probably for a newspaper, or something like that) and said that “the average broadband user pays $x.xx per month.” Grazie. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-broadband-connectivity/273661/2 "2004-11-08T17:40:03Z")
I’ll go out on a limb and guess that the average for broadband (cable and DSL only) is probably around $35 a month. DSL from Verizon in the greater Philadelphia area goes for about $30 a month. Cable from Comcast is $40 a month. I rent my cable modem from Comcast so my bill for internet access is $43 a month, you can buy one for about $150 if you like instead. Comcast gets me 3mb downloads (even higher sometimes) and 128k up…Verizon is something like 1mb downloads and 128k up. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-broadband-connectivity/273661/3 "2004-11-08T18:01:28Z")
[From here:](http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=14800041) > [@](#): > > Monthly subscriptions–which are flat-rate so there is no extra charge no matter how long people stay on line–are generally between US$30 and US$50, but run as high as US$165.89 in Finland, the report said. The average cost in the United States is US$52.99. > > The United States is in 11th place, with a subscription rate of 6.9 percent. However, the country has the largest number of broadband subscribers–19.9 million. Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-broadband-connectivity/273661/4 "2004-11-08T18:08:23Z")
I’m paying $44.95 / month for a 6mbs/600kbs DSL line (actual speed’s 5mbs/500kbs) My ISP’s cheapest DSL is $21.95 and offers up to 1.5mbs/384kbs speeds. ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-broadband-connectivity/273661/5 "2004-11-08T18:16:56Z")
I pay $44.95/month for cable access since I also get cable TV (from Cablevision). It would be $5/month more without cable TV. Most days I get 4+ Mbps download and 960 kbps upload speeds. ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-broadband-connectivity/273661/6 "2004-11-08T20:02:04Z")
Hot. Thanks, TMINC.