The Federal Communications Commission’s 2026 Section 706 Report finds that broadband deployment across the United States is progressing at a reasonable and timely pace, driven by fixed-wireless growth, expanding fibre and cable networks, mobile 5G investment, satellite broadband and billions of dollars in federal support.
FCC’s analysis primarily compares broadband availability between June 2023 and June 2025, using 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload as the fixed-broadband benchmark and 35/3 Mbps as the mobile 5G benchmark.
US Fixed Broadband Availability Reaches 97 Percent
As of June 2025, 322.795 million Americans, or 93.9 percent of the evaluated population, had access to fixed-wireline broadband offering at least 100/20 Mbps. This increased from 319.986 million, or 93.1 percent, in June 2024 and 311.671 million, or 92.1 percent, in June 2023.
When terrestrial fixed-wireless access is included, fixed terrestrial broadband availability rises to 333.102 million people, or 96.9 percent. That compares with 329.945 million, or 96 percent, in June 2024 and 320.037 million, or 94.5 percent, in June 2023.
The number of Americans without 100/20 Mbps fixed terrestrial broadband declined approximately 23 percent between June 2024 and June 2025 and almost 43 percent over the two years from June 2023.
Satellite inclusion pushes reported fixed availability to 343.658 million people, effectively 100 percent of the evaluated population. The FCC estimates that 99.7 percent of Americans can receive satellite service at 100/20 Mbps, leaving approximately 25,000 people — around one in every 14,000 — without any qualifying fixed-broadband option.
Satellite represented only 2.3 percent of fixed-broadband connections in June 2025. The FCC cautioned that congestion, location, service plans and line-of-sight restrictions can affect satellite speed and latency.
Rural Internet Availability Improves Rapidly
Fixed-wireline broadband availability in rural America increased from 46.160 million people, or 67 percent, in June 2023 to 49.995 million, or 71.3 percent, in June 2024 and 52.771 million, or 75.3 percent, in June 2025.
Including fixed wireless lifted rural terrestrial broadband availability to 60.748 million people, or 86.7 percent, in June 2025. This compares with 57.970 million, or 82.7 percent, in June 2024 and 52.687 million, or 76.5 percent, in June 2023.
Fixed wireless raised rural 100/20 Mbps availability by more than 10 percentage points. Nationwide, approximately 56 percent of the population could access 100/20 Mbps fixed wireless in June 2025.
Fixed wireless accounted for 8.5 percent of fixed-broadband connections, nearly three times its 2.9 percent share in June 2022.
The percentage of rural Americans without 100/20 Mbps terrestrial broadband fell by more than 44 percent between June 2023 and June 2025. Despite this progress, more than 9 million rural Americans remained without qualifying terrestrial service.
Rural Broadband Competition Remains Behind Cities
The United States had 2,082 entities reporting residential fixed-broadband availability above 200 kbps in at least one direction in June 2025. The number of providers declined approximately 4 percent year-on-year, including a 4 percent drop in rural areas and a 2 percent decline in urban areas.
Only 13 providers, including three satellite operators, covered at least 5 percent of the US population in both June 2023 and June 2025.
At 100/20 Mbps, 23.3 percent of rural households had no fixed-wireline provider in June 2025, while 53.4 percent had one, 20.9 percent had two and only 2.4 percent had three or more.
For fixed terrestrial broadband, which includes fixed wireless, 13 percent of rural households had no provider, 39.7 percent had one, 28.4 percent had two and 18.8 percent had at least three.
Overall, 47 percent of rural households had two or more fixed terrestrial choices, compared with 85 percent in urban areas and 61 percent on Tribal lands. When satellite is included, multiple-provider availability rises to 87 percent in rural areas, 100 percent in urban areas and 89 percent on Tribal lands.
Nationwide, the share of households with three or more terrestrial providers increased from 27.8 percent in June 2023 to 43.3 percent in June 2025, representing growth of approximately 56 percent.
Mobile 5G Reaches 327.14 Million Americans
Mobile 5G New Radio coverage offering at least 35/3 Mbps reached 327.140 million Americans, or 95.2 percent, in June 2025. Coverage increased from 324.065 million, or 94.3 percent, in June 2024 and 314.760 million, or 93 percent, in June 2023.
The number of people without qualifying 5G declined nearly 16 percent between June 2024 and June 2025 and more than 30 percent from June 2023.
Urban 5G availability reached 271.768 million people, or 99.3 percent. Rural coverage increased from 48.541 million people, or 70.5 percent, in June 2023 to 55.372 million, or 79 percent, in June 2025.
Tribal-area 5G availability rose from 78.9 percent to 85.6 percent over the same period. Rural Tribal coverage improved from 64.1 percent to 75.4 percent, compared with 98.4 percent in urban Tribal areas.
Three nationwide facilities-based mobile operators served the US market. At least one 35/3 Mbps 5G provider covered 95.2 percent of the population, 69.2 percent of roads and 39.2 percent of the country’s land area.
At least two providers covered 87.8 percent of people, 49.5 percent of roads and 20.3 percent of land. Three or more covered 73.8 percent of people, 32.1 percent of roads and only 8.4 percent of the total area.
In rural America, one or more 5G providers covered 79.7 percent of the population, two or more covered 56.2 percent and three or more covered 30.1 percent.
Combined Fixed Broadband and 5G Coverage Shows Rural Gap
Approximately 90.5 percent of Americans had access to both 100/20 Mbps fixed-wireline broadband and 35/3 Mbps mobile 5G in June 2025, up from 89.3 percent in June 2024 and 87.7 percent in June 2023.
When fixed wireless is included, combined fixed terrestrial and 5G availability reached 93.2 percent. Including satellite raised the figure to 95.2 percent.
The urban-rural divide remains significant. Combined fixed-wireline and 5G coverage reached 98 percent in urban areas but only 61.1 percent in rural areas. Fixed terrestrial plus 5G reached 98.9 percent in cities and 71 percent in rural communities. When satellite was included, combined availability reached 99.3 percent in urban areas and 79 percent in rural America.
Broadband Prices Decline, but FCC Excludes Affordability
FCC’s Broadband Report 2026 indicated broadband prices are declining even as the cost of living rises. It cited industry data indicating that unlimited wireless plans are more than 40 percent cheaper than in 2010 while delivering substantially faster service.
However, the report did not establish a fixed-broadband price benchmark. The Commission excluded affordability and adoption from its Section 706 determination, arguing that the statute focuses on physical deployment and availability.
Federal Broadband Investment Targets Unserved Areas
Of the 343,683,456 people evaluated in June 2025, 333,102,362 had at least one 100/20 Mbps fixed terrestrial option. The remaining 10,581,094 people, or 3.1 percent, lacked qualifying service.
Enforceable federal funding commitments covered 3,394,105 of those people, representing 32.1 percent of the unserved population. Another 7,186,989 people, or 67.9 percent, were in areas without a commitment recorded in the Broadband Funding Map as of November 23, 2025. The FCC said this figure excludes recent Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment awards and therefore overstates the unfunded gap.
The $42.45 billion BEAD programme is designed to connect remaining unserved locations. Other major commitments include the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund covering 1,631,642 unserved people, the Capital Projects Fund covering 723,297, Enhanced A-CAM covering 452,442 and the Rural eConnectivity Programme covering 295,343.
Between the beginning of 2024 and the end of 2025, FCC high-cost programmes supported deployment to 1.7 million housing units and continued service to 3.2 million units, covering 4.9 million units with $3.639 billion in annual support.
RDOF has approximately $5.75 billion authorised for more than 3.2 million locations over 10 years. Winning providers committed to delivering 1 Gbps download and 500 Mbps upload to approximately 98 percent of funded locations.
The Connect America Fund Phase II auction awarded $1.488 billion over 10 years to 103 bidders to serve more than 713,000 rural homes and businesses. More than $1.4 billion was authorised for over 680,000 locations as of June 8, 2026.
Enhanced A-CAM will provide more than $18 billion over 15 years, deploying 100/20 Mbps service to over 500,000 unserved locations and maintaining connectivity at more than 2 million existing locations.
The figures show that American broadband availability is nearing universal levels when all technologies are counted. However, rural communities continue to trail urban markets in terrestrial coverage, provider competition, high-speed mobile availability and access to both fixed broadband and 5G.
BABURAJAN KIZHAKEDATH
