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BCG year‑3 refresh: unserved or underserved BSLs fall to about 11%; fiber and fixed wireless increased
Summary
Consultants from Boston Consulting Group told the task force that Wisconsin’s fabric v7 shows unserved/underserved Broadband Service Locations (BSLs) falling from about 20% to roughly 11% (≈245,000 BSLs), with fiber rising to 49% of locations and fixed wireless to 43%; BCG also reported improved alignment between advertised and experience speeds using Ookla data.
Boston Consulting Group presented a year‑three refresh of Wisconsin broadband data, reporting measurable progress on access, affordability and adoption.
Anna Moncilla, a principal with BCG, introduced the team’s findings and framed the presentation as a continuation of analytics begun in 2023. Majid Alivan, senior data analytics manager with BCG, said the updated fabric (v7) shows the share of BSLs classified as unserved or underserved has shrunk from roughly 20% in 2023 to about 11% in the latest refresh — a reduction BCG estimated at roughly 245,000 BSLs still lacking adequate service.
Majid said fiber and fixed‑wireless growth were the most pronounced technology changes: "fiber has increased from about 32% to 49% of BSLs," and fixed wireless grew substantially as well. He noted that the BCG analysis excludes some satellite data (they flagged Starlink separately), and reported that the fabric now shows near‑complete served speeds for Starlink in its coverage model.
BCG described its experience‑vs‑advertised speed work using Ookla data. Over three years the team analyzed about 14.2 million tests from roughly 2.8 million users, which improved geographic confidence in where advertised speeds do not match user experience. Majid told members that roughly 280,000 BSLs are advertised served but have clusters of experience tests showing underserved speeds; BCG flagged those areas for potential follow‑up with ISPs.
On affordability and adoption, Ben Thornton (BCG) said the team found average minimum pricing for served plans near $51 statewide (2025 pricing), that single‑ISP BSLs saw higher minimum average prices (about $56) than BSLs with multiple providers (about $48), and that a benchmark affordability threshold of 1.17% of monthly income (about $75/month) produced a decline in households judged cost‑burdened from about 53% in 2023 to roughly 31% in the 2026 results. Take rates where service is available are high (near 93%), and remaining underconnected households disproportionately lack a device or score low on digital‑literacy measures.
BCG and PSC staff answered technical questions: presenters said the full dataset includes smaller Wisconsin ISPs even where summary slides selected only top operators for display, and they cautioned that fixed‑wireless performance differences require deeper, area‑by‑area analysis.
What happens next: BCG will deliver slides and datasets to PSC staff; the task force can request specific cuts and follow‑ups to examine small‑ISP results or flagged geographic clusters.
