On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a speech in Washington, D. C., that the wireline market in the US lacks adequate competition in terms of high-speed broadband services.

Pointing out that competitive choices get fewer as bandwidth increases, Wheeler said that most US residents have the choice of only two providers, even at fairly low broadband speeds of between 4 megabits per second (4 Mbps) and 10 Mbps.

Wheeler further added that when the broadband speeds are ramped up to 25Mbps, most of the Americans do not have any competitive choice. Wheeler also asserted that a whopping 82 percent Americans have no competitive choice at 50Mbs speeds.

Drawing attention to the success in broadband markets which have been spurred on by competition, Wheeler said that competition in the broadband arena will be protected by the FCC in markets where such competition exists. And, in markets which lack meaningful competition, Wheeler said that competition will be encouraged by the Commission.

Asserting the fact that "meaningful competition for high-speed wired broadband is lacking and Americans need more-competitive choices for faster and better Internet connections," Wheeler said that "three-quarters of American homes have no competitive choice for the essential infrastructure for 21st century economics and democracy."