May 27, 2021 Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838 WASHINGTON — On Thursday, telecom-industry lobbying group USTelecom put out a 2021 “update” to its Broadband Pricing Index Report. The update relies on the same methodologies and misleading tactics prior versions of this same report used. Earlier this month, Free Press published a comprehensive report on the steeper prices people are actually paying for high-speed internet. The report also takes account of the broadband industry’s increased revenues and decreased investments in this essential service during the peak user demand spurred by the pandemic. Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner made the following statement: “Today’s USTelecom update is just more of the same grossly misleading and inaccurate analysis of broadband prices first seen in a prior report released last year. This new report, like the earlier versions, falsely asserts that the broadband prices internet users pay are declining. They are not, as can be seen from broadband providers’ statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as other survey data.