Not all Internet customers are getting equally speedy and consistent service, the Federal Communications Commission reports, raising questions about competition in the telecom sector and whether consumers are getting their money’s worth.

An FCC report shows that while many U.S. Internet service providers (ISPs) increased performance between 2012 and 2013, not all of them delivered the speeds that they advertised.

Consistency of speeds is also a problem, as some ISPs delivered approximately 60 percent of the speeds they promised 80 percent of the time to 80 percent of customers, according to the report. This is the first time the commission measured speed consistency in its annual report on the topic, and the results concerned FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

“Consumers deserve to get what they pay for,” Wheeler said in a statement announcing the report Wednesday. “I’ve directed FCC staff to write to the underperforming companies to ask why this happened and what they will do to solve this.”



Federal Communications Commission

The FCC is also collecting information from content providers, including Netflix, and Internet providers, including Comcast, to determine whether connection deals between such companies pose a threat to consumer rights.

Netflix has announced deals to directly connect its streaming video traffic to the Comcast and Verizon networks to ensure easy downloads for users of the Internet service providers. Such deals, known as peering agreements, traditionally have been free, but ISPs have started requesting payment in recent years as Internet traffic grows along with the costs of maintaining that traffic.

The Internet report from the FCC shows increasing consumer demand is causing congestion on networks, which may escalate the debate on peering agreements. As that demand increases, companies using digital subscriber line (DSL) service on phone networks cannot compete with the growing speeds of cable and fiber Internet.



Federal Communications Commission

All providers charted by the commission averaged 90 percent performance or better during peak periods – except for DSL providers Verizon DSL, CenturyLink, Frontier DSL, and Windstream.

Providers using fiber-based broadband connected directly to consumers' households delivered 113 percent of advertised download speeds and 114 percent of advertised upload speeds, making it the best traffic option available. But telecom companies have not invested in expanding fiber-optic networks, which is the only way to compete with Internet speeds offered by cable companies, says Harold Feld, senior vice president of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge.

“We are ultimately heading to a cable monopoly because on the technology side the other technologies cannot keep up,” Feld says, citing arguments made by Susan Crawford, a former tech policy adviser for the Obama administration who is now a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. “We see people want faster speeds, and that DSL as a technology cannot keep up unless companies make very significant investments.”