What a difference one more competitor can make!

Using U.S. county data (n=3,140) from the National Broadband Map and relating the percent coverage by 2 or more vs. 3 or more wireline providers with the percent of a  population with access to high speed broadband (25 mbps), it was found that:

Table: Column headings are percent access to high speed broadband.  Row headings are percent coverage by the number of providers (2 or more vs. 3 or more)

At the low end:

12% of counties had 2 or more providers serving less than 10% of the population.  That percent jumps to 59% with 3 or more providers. 

In the middle:

66.6% of counties had 2 or more providers serving at least 50% of the population.  The percent drops to 19.8% with 3 or more providers.

At the upper end:

18.7% of counties had 2 or more providers serving at least 90% of the population.  (78.5% of these counties provided high speed broadband to more than 90% of its residence.)  

Just 3.6% of counties had 3 or more providers serving at least 90% of the population.  (98.2% of these counties provided high speed broadband to more than 90% of its residence.)

Slightly more than 20% of counties have 10% or less of its population with access to high speed broadband.  Among these counties,

Ø  38% have 10% or less coverage by 2 or more providers.

Ø  88% have 10% or less coverage by 3 or more providers.

Slightly more than 20% of counties have more than 90% of its population with access to high speed broadband.  Among these counties,

Ø  69.1% have more than 90% coverage by 2 or more providers.

Ø  16.5% have more than 90% coverage by 3 or more providers.