Sue Marek is Ookla’s editorial director and part of the company’s analyst team. She oversees the company’s thought leadership and editorial content. Sue is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience covering the telecom industry and her work has appeared in Fierce Network, Light Reading, and SDxCentral. She is a frequent speaker at industry events and has moderated panels at Mobile World Las Vegas, Connect(x), the Consumer Electronics Show, the Competitive Carriers’ Show and 5G North America. Sue has a B.S. in journalism from the University of Colorado.
A new report from Ookla found that the digital divide increased for 32 states between 1H 2024 and 2H 2024, indicating that much of the broadband expansion is occurring in urban areas instead of rural areas.
Key Takeaways
The number of states with 60% or more of users experiencing the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream increased from 10 states in the 1H of 2024 to 22 states (and the District of Columbia) in the 2H of 2024.
New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, North Dakota, and Maryland are the top five states with the highest percentage of Speedtest users with 100/20 Mbps.
32 states saw their digital divide increase between the 1H of 2024 and the 2H of 2024 and 17 states saw their digital divide decrease.
Many U.S. states made sizable gains in their broadband infrastructure during 2024 and much of that growth was fueled by private equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, capex investments, and government funding.
According to Ookla Speedtest Intelligence® data, the number of states in the U.S. delivering the minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds as designated by the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream is growing. In fact, in our latest U.S. State Broadband Report, we found that states with 60% or more of Speedtest users receiving 100/20 Mbps dramatically increased between the first half and the second half of 2024.
However, that increase didn’t result in sweeping improvements to the digital divide. Instead, 32 states saw their gap between the percentage of urban users and rural users that receive the minimum required broadband speeds grow during this time period. Ookla uses the Census Bureau’s urban-rural classification to determine which users are urban vs. rural.
New Jersey is No. 1
Seven states now have 65% or more of Speedtest users experiencing the FCC’s minimum standard for broadband of 100/20 Mbps. New Jersey is No. 1 with 68.97% of Speedtest users experiencing the FCC’s minimum requirement followed closely by Connecticut with 68.35%. Delaware moved up from the No. 5 slot in the first half of the year to the No. 3 ranking in the second half of 2024.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Montana and Alaska have fewer than 40% of Speedtest users that receive the minimum broadband speeds of 100/20 Mbps so it’s no surprise that Montana and Alaska are also two of the least densely populated states in the country.
Digital Divide Grows
While the number of states with 60% or more of users experiencing 100/20 Mbps more than doubled from the first half of 2024 to the second half of 2024, it appears that much of that progress occurred in urban areas because the digital divide, which is the gap between urban and rural users in a state, became much more prominent in 32 states during that time period.
Washington state leads the nation with the biggest digital divide in the second half of 2024 and it was also at the top of the list in the first half of the year. Oregon and Illinois are also top states with the biggest digital divide in the second half of the year.
The lack of affordable broadband is known to exacerbate the digital divide and some of this increase in the digital divide is likely due to the demise of the Affordable Connectivity Plan (ACP), which provided discounted broadband services to more than 23 million low-income U.S. households. The FCC ended the ACP program on June 1, 2024, because of a lack of Congressional funding.
Download the Full Report
To find your state’s standing and how it compares to the other 49 states in broadband connectivity, download this free report here.
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
In a boost of confidence for FWA, both T-Mobile and Verizon announced plans to expand their service beyond their initial subscriber targets
Editor’s note: This report was revised on April 11 to reflect updates to AT&T’s median upload and download speeds.
Key Takeaways:
As of Q4 2024, T-Mobile’s fixed wireless access (FWA) subscriber base now tops 6.43 million. However, that growth in FWA subscribers hasn’t impacted the company’s download speeds. T-Mobile’s FWA median download speeds increased more than 50% from 134.99 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 205.44 Mbps in Q4 2024.
A late entrant into the FWA space because it launched service in August 2023, AT&T’s Internet Air FWA customers experience strong median download speeds of 125.93 Mbps (as of Q4 2024).
T-Mobile consistently outpaces the competition when it comes to median upload speeds.
Verizon and T-Mobile have both recently increased their goals for the number of FWA subscribers they plan to attract by 2028. Verizon increased its goal to 8 million to 9 million by 2028 and T-Mobile increased its goal to 12 million by 2028.
5G fixed wireless access (FWA) has steadily gained popularity in the U.S. over the past four years and now the service has more than 11.5 million subscribers —and that’s just counting the FWA subscribers from the big three nationwide operators. Today FWA is considered a viable broadband competitor, and its traction with customers has caused many cable operators to lose customers to FWA.
Download Speeds on the Rise
Although there have been concerns about traffic from FWA subscribers causing congestion and negatively impacting the performance of both mobile and FWA customers because the same 5G spectrum is being used to deliver both services, Ookla® Speedtest® data found that hasn’t been the case. T-Mobile’s FWA subscriber base, which now tops 6.43 million actually saw its median download speeds increase more than 50% from a median download speed of 134.99 Mbps in Q4 2023 to a median download speed of 205.44 Mbps in Q4 2024. This increase in speed isn’t surprising, as T-Mobile executives told investors during the company’s Capital Markets Day last October that they have seen a 3x increase in customers FWA speeds since the service was launched in Q1 2021.
But T-Mobile isn’t the only operator seeing an increase in FWA speeds. Verizon, which has more than 4.3 million FWA subscribers, saw its median download speed rise more than 12% from 132.55 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 150.47 Mbps in Q4 2024. AT&T, which only launched its Internet Air service in August 2023, ended the year with a median download speed of 125.93 Mbps.
T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert addressed questions about congestion negatively impacting performance during the company’s recent Q4 2024 earnings call with investors by saying that the company studies algorithms that can determine its network capacity levels in such detail that they know when certain sectors of specific towers are becoming congested. “When approving applicants for fixed [wireless] in the first place we study our algorithm,” Sievert said, adding that if the algorithm says that the sector will continue to have excess capacity, then T-Mobile will approve an applicant for home broadband.
“We don’t see sectors or towers becoming saturated due to fixed wireless,” he added.
T-Mobile’s FWA download speeds steadily increased from Q4 2023 until Q4 2024.
Minimizing Capacity Constraints with Speed Caps
Taking a cue from its cable counterparts, Verizon has started managing its network capacity by capping its FWA download speeds at 300 Mbps. When we looked at the 90th percentile of Download Speeds for Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, it appears that Verizon is enforcing those data speed caps, which it spells out in its 5G Home broadband price plan disclosures. The company has three tiers of service for its FWA service. There’s a top-tier 5G Home Plus that provides up to 1 Gbps download speeds using its 5G Ultra Wideband or mmWave spectrum and a mid-tier 5G Home Plus plan that provides up to 300 Mbps download speeds that uses just 5G Ultra Wideband spectrum. The lower tier 5G Home plan provides up to 300 Mbps download speeds using 5G Ultra Wideband or mmWave spectrum. Currently Verizon has the 5G Home Plus plans priced at $55 per month and the lower tier 5G Home plan priced at $35 per month.
Similar to Verizon, T-Mobile offers three tiers of service: All-In Home Internet plan priced at $70 per month (or $55/mo. with a voice line) that features typical download speeds of 133 Mbps to 415 Mbps and includes streaming services Hulu+ and Paramount+; Amplified Home Internet that costs $60 per month (or $45/mo. With a voice line) and features typical download speeds of 133 Mbps to 415 Mbps; and Rely that costs $50 per month (or $35/mo. With a voice line) and features typical download speeds of 87 Mbps to 315 Mbps).
Although Speedtest data doesn’t indicate that T-Mobile is slowing down the speeds or capping the speeds of its FWA customers at this time, T-Mobile does say on its web site that during times of congestion, Home Internet customers that use more than 1.2 TB of data per month might see their speeds reduced due to data prioritization. T-Mobile said it started implementing this soft cap on its new FWA subscribers in January 2024 and expanded it to all its FWA subscribers later that year.
When looking at the 90th percentile of Speedtest users download speeds, it’s evident that Verizon is capping its download speeds slightly above 300 Mbps.
FWA Upload Speeds Are Improving
Upload speeds are becoming increasingly important to consumers and remote workers for activities such as conducting live video calls without lag or doing online collaboration and sharing of files without having hiccups in the workflow.
Our data shows that median FWA upload speeds increased from Q4 2023 to Q4 2024 with T-Mobile’s upload speeds consistently outpacing the competition. T-Mobile’s upload speed increased 9.05% from 19.88 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 21.68 Mbps in Q4 2024.
Verizon saw its median upload speeds increase over 7% from 12.84 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 13.88 in Q4 2024. AT&T’s Internet Air median upload speeds dropped 17.16% from 15.89 Mbps in Q4 2023 to 13.17 Mbps in Q4 2024.
T-Mobile’s upload speeds surpass that of AT&T and Verizon.
Latency Ebbs and Flows
Unlike FWA upload and download speeds that have improved from Q4 2023 until Q4 2024, latency figures have remained somewhat static for Verizon and AT&T while T-Mobile’s latency has declined. Latency is a key measurement because higher latency will impact real-time applications such as online gaming and video conferencing.
AT&T’s latency of 74 milliseconds (ms) in Q4 2023 and 73 ms in Q4 2024 was consistently higher than both T-Mobile and Verizon. T-Mobile saw its latency decline from 61 ms in Q3 2023 to 52 ms in Q4 2024 and Verizon saw its latency rise slightly from 52 ms in Q4 2023 to 53 ms in Q4 2024.
AT&T’s latency was consistently higher than T-Mobile and Verizon.
Moving the Subscriber Goal Post
T-Mobile and Verizon executives are both so bullish on FWA (and the revenue it’s generating for the companies) that both recently increased their FWA subscriber goals.
Verizon doubled the number of FWA subscribers that it plans to acquire to between 8 million to 9 million by 2028, up from the initial goal of attracting 4 million to 5 million customers by the end of this year.
Likewise T-Mobile executives said during the company’s Capital Market Days in October 2024 that they were increasing their FWA customer target to 12 million by 2028, up from its initial goal of providing FWA service to 7 million to 8 million customers by 2025. T-Mobile is planning to continue with its same strategy, which is to deliver FWA in areas where there is fallow spectrum and the network isn’t constrained. This is particularly applicable in rural areas where T-Mobile has spectrum and towers but also fewer mobile users.
AT&T is a bit of a newcomer to the FWA, having just launched its 5G FWA service in August 2023. The company said it ended Q4 2024 with more than 650,000 Internet Air subscribers. However, AT&T CEO John Stankey has publicly stated that the company views FWA as a stopgap tool for capturing customers who don’t have a satisfactory broadband connection, including those using AT&T’s DSL service. FWA allows AT&T to keep those customers but its long-term goal is to eventually upsell them to fiber when it’s available.
Consumers keen on FWA
Since T-Mobile and Verizon first launched their FWA offerings in 2021 they’ve steadily grown their customer base. In fact, FWA is a popular choice for consumers, often because it’s slightly less expensive than fiber or cable but also because it’s easy for them to purchase, install and return if it doesn’t meet their expectations.
According to Recon Analytics, which conducted interviews with 288,490 Americans between July 2023 and December 2024, 44% of respondents said they would choose an FWA provider for their next broadband provider if they had to make that choice, 25% said they would pick a fiber provider and 17% said they would select a cable provider. The remaining said they would choose DSL or a satellite provider.
Likewise, an April 2024 report from JD Power found that 5G FWA users have the highest satisfaction of all broadband providers, with fiber coming in second place.
But even though overall satisfaction for FWA is high, when we look at the download speeds of the 10th percentile of Speedtest users by hour of day we see that customers in this category are experiencing some unsatisfactory speeds, particularly in the afternoon and evening when the network is the busiest. According to our data, T-Mobile Speedtest users in the 10th percentile saw their speeds dip to 13.50 Mbps at 8 p.m. while Verizon Speedtest users saw their speeds dip to 15.81 Mbps at that time and AT&T users saw their speeds drop to 15.99 Mbps.
FWA Performance is Evolving
Although T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T were the focus of this FWA report because they have the most FWA customers, there are smaller regional operators that also offer FWA service such as USCellular, which reported having 150,000 FWA customers at the end of Q4 2024. In addition, Cspire recently launched FWA service to customers in Mississippi and fiber provider BrightSpeed recently said it plans to launch an FWA service in partnership with Verizon. There are many small wireless ISPs also offering FWA using unlicensed spectrum throughout the country.
We expect the FWA market to continue to grow and evolve and we will continue to measure their performance, particularly with these new FWA subscriber goals from T-Mobile and Verizon coupled with AT&T’s FWA growth in the market. Verizon also revealed that it plans to commercially launch an FWA product using millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum to deliver 1 Gbps speeds to multi-dwelling units (MDUs). That FWA product is currently in customer trials and is expected to launch soon.
It will be interesting to see if U.S. operators are able to continue to deliver strong download and upload speeds to FWA customers and still grow their customer base as rapidly as they have over the past few years.
If you are interested in learning about how 5G FWA is reshaping the broadband market in the Gulf region, please check out this other FWA report from Ookla. To find out more about Speedtest Intelligence® data and insights, please contact us here.
Ookla analyst Kerry Baker contributed to this report.
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
Three open RAN leaders joined Ookla in a panel discussion about the technology’s real-world performance at Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona.
Creating a scalable and agile network architecture, avoiding becoming dependent upon a single vendor, and building a more flexible and efficient network are just a handful of the reasons that some mobile operators are deciding to use the open radio access network (open RAN) approach in their network deployments.
During a panel hosted by Ookla at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on March 4, Luke Kehoe, Ookla’s European analyst, moderated a discussion about open RAN featuring top mobile executives from Boost Mobile (formerly Dish Wireless) in the U.S., Paradise Mobile in Bermuda, and 1&1 in Germany.
Open RAN as a Differentiator: Competitive Insights from Leading 5G Deployments
Open RAN refers to the separation of the hardware and software components of the RAN. This technology has gained a lot of attention in the telecom industry over the past few years because it makes it possible to use interoperable hardware and software from different vendors, ideally leading to cost savings for operators and more flexibility in the network.
All three operators have deployed open RAN in greenfield networks. According to Eben Albertyn, EVP and CTO of Boost Mobile, open RAN was an appealing solution for the company because it provided the operator with “near-infinite architectural freedom” and the ability to leverage open interfaces while still retaining control over the ecosystem.
“No part of our ecosystem can hold an architectural gun to our head,” Albertyn said, referring to traditional RAN networks that are often built with hardware and software from a sole vendor. Albertyn added that Boost Mobile has been able to swap components within the network without any negative ramifications. “It is an absolute success for us,” he said.
The open vendor ecosystem of open RAN was also a key differentiator for 1&1. Michael Martin, CEO of 1&1 Mobilfunk, said that open RAN enabled the company to build a highly modular network with standardized components. He said the operator launched its network in December 2023 and started offering its enhanced mobile broadband (EMBB) services right away.
Since its launch, 1&1 has migrated six million mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) customers onto its network at a rate of 50,000 customers per day. “That’s a massive achievement,” Martin said. He emphasized that this success in managing a complex customer migration while building a network capable of supporting a large user base in a short period offers valuable lessons for brownfield operators elsewhere aiming to incorporate open RAN into their networks in the coming years.
Scalability and flexibility are key reasons Paradise Mobile chose open RAN. Zlatko Zahirovic, CTO and founder of Paradise Mobile, said that his company’s entire network is in three racks – all using x86-based servers. “If we had chosen something other than an x86-based architecture, we would have been doing ourselves a disservice,” he said, noting that the open RAN architecture promotes flexibility and scalability.
But perhaps the biggest endorsement for open RAN is the ease with which these operators will be able to leverage new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Martin said that open RAN’s cloud-native structure makes AI integration seamless. “Whatever the next AI breakthrough is, we’ll be ready to deploy it faster than any traditional network.”
Similarly, the significant investments made by these open RAN players in delivering edge compute capabilities closer to the end user will place them in a unique position to adapt to shifts in traffic patterns that are expected from emerging AI applications.
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
The 16e is the first iPhone to feature the Apple-designed C1 modem.
Key Takeaways:
AT&T and Verizon Speedtest® users experienced better median download speeds on the iPhone 16e than iPhone 16. However, the opposite was true for T-Mobile users.
Verizon Speedtest users with the iPhone 16e and the iPhone 16 experienced median download speeds that lagged behind that of both AT&T and T-Mobile.
iPhone 16e Speedtest users on Verizon’s network and AT&T’s network saw higher upload speed performance than those using the iPhone 16. However, T-Mobile users experienced the opposite and had slightly higher upload speeds on the iPhone 16 compared to the iPhone 16e.
Apple’s new iPhone 16e made its commercial debut in late February with much fanfare because it’s the first device to include the Apple-designed C1 modem. Historically, Apple relied upon Qualcomm to provide most of its iPhone modems so its decision to use the C1 modem in the iPhone 16e is considered a significant move.
Although it’s early in the adoption curve for the iPhone 16e, we analyzed the performance of the new device from March 1st through March 12th, and compared it to the performance of iPhone 16, which has a similar design and the same 6.1” screen. Both devices run on the same Apple-designed A18 SoC. However, it’s important to note that unlike the iPhone 16, the iPhone 16e does not support mmWave spectrum. This is the first iPhone available in the U.S. without mmWave support but we expect future iterations of the C1 modem will include it.
iPhone 16 offers higher top-end performance than the iPhone 16e
iPhone 16e Offers Better Worst-Case Speeds, but iPhone 16 Has a Higher Top-End Performance
Speedtest Intelligence® | 1-12 March, 2025
When we compare Speedtest Intelligence® data from the top 90th percentile (those with the highest performance experience) of iPhone 16e and iPhone 16 users from all three of the top U.S. operators, we see the iPhone 16 performing better in download speeds. However, at the opposite end, with the 10th percentile of users (those who experience the lowest performance) we see the iPhone 16e performing better than the iPhone 16.
iPhone 16e outperforms on download speeds for AT&T and Verizon, but not T-Mobile
Speedtest data shows the iPhone16e recorded faster median download speeds than the iPhone 16 on both AT&T and Verizon’s networks, but was markedly slower on T-Mobile’s network.
iPhone 16e users on T-Mobile’s network experienced median download speeds of 264.71 Mbps, which is at least 47% faster than iPhone 16e users on Verizon’s network that experienced median download speeds of 140.77 Mbps. The download speed performance for iPhone 16e users on AT&T’s network was 226.90 Mbps, closer to that of T-Mobile users.
However, when comparing median download speeds for T-Mobile users with the iPhone 16e (264.71 Mbps) to T-Mobile users with the iPhone 16 device (357.47 Mbps), the iPhone 16 outperformed the iPhone 16e byat least 24%.
The iPhone 16e’s underperformance in median download speed compared to the iPhone 16 on T-Mobile’s network is most likely due to the fact that T-Mobile is the only US carrier to have a nationwide commercialized 5G standalone network (SA) and one of the few operators globally to deploy significant spectrum depth and advanced features like carrier aggregation (CA) on the new 5G architecture.
The C1 modem’s more limited capabilities on 5G SA networks compared to the Qualcomm modem in the iPhone 16 may be a key factor contributing to the larger performance gap between device models observed on T-Mobile’s network in early testing.
Verizon’s download performance lags on both devices
While much has been made of the lack of mmWave support on the iPhone 16e, which will have some impact on performance, particularly for users that are in range of these higher bands, both Verizon Speedtest users with the iPhone 16e and the iPhone 16 experienced median download speeds that lagged behind that of both AT&T and T-Mobile.
iPhone 16e Outperforms iPhone 16 on AT&T & Verizon Despite Lacking mmWave, but Trails on T-Mobile's 5G SA
Speedtest Intelligence® | 1-12 March, 2025
iPhone 16e beats the 16 among those in the 10th percentile
When we examine Speedtest Intelligence® data for the bottom 10th percentile (those with the lowest overall download speeds) of iPhone 16e vs. iPhone 16 users, we see that iPhone 16e users experienced better download speeds compared to iPhone 16 users across all three mobile providers.
For example, T-Mobile iPhone 16e users in the bottom 10th percentile are experiencing speeds of 57.34 Mbps compared to T-Mobile iPhone 16 users that are experiencing speeds of just 27.27 Mbps.
The Worst Outcomes on iPhone 16e Are Significantly Better Than on iPhone 16
Speedtest Intelligence® | 1-12 March, 2025
At the other end of the scale at the 90th percentile (those with the fastest overall download speeds), we saw the reverse with the iPhone 16 outpacing the iPhone 16e for each mobile provider. For example, T-Mobile iPhone 16 users in the 90th percentile experienced blazing fast median download speeds of 889.83 Mbps compared to T-Mobile iPhone 16e users that are experiencing median download speeds of 627.01 Mbps.
iPhone 16 Outperforms iPhone 16e in Peak Performance Scenarios
Speedtest Intelligence® | 1-12 March, 2025
Performance at the lowest 10th percentile often provides a more accurate reflection of overall quality of experience (QoE) than the fastest 90th percentile, which can be skewed by deployments in mmWave-covered locations and is subject to declining marginal returns.
iPhone 16e is higher in upload speeds
Interestingly, in upload speeds, we saw iPhone 16e users on Verizon and AT&T experiencing higher upload speed performance than those using the iPhone 16. T-Mobile users, however, experienced just slightly higher upload speeds on the iPhone 16e compared to the iPhone 16. The gap was the biggest with AT&T iPhone 16e customers, who experienced median upload speeds of 14.63 Mbps, which is at least a 38% increase over AT&T iPhone 16 users who experienced median upload speeds of 8.60 Mbps.
iPhone 16e Leads iPhone 16 on Upload Speed across AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon
Speedtest Intelligence® | 1-12 March, 2025
Apple’s departure from Qualcomm
Apple has historically sourced its iPhone modems from Qualcomm but in 2019 the company purchased Intel’s modem business with the goal of designing its own in-house modems.
Apple’s iPhone 16e with the C1 modem supports all the low and mid-band 5G spectrum but, as mentioned above, it doesn’t support mmWave spectrum. It also supports Wi-Fi 6 with 2×2 MIMO and Bluetooth 5.3, but lacks Wi-Fi 7 support unlike the rest of the iPhone 16 series of devices.
Apple claims that the C1 is more power-efficient than any modem ever used in an iPhone and said that the 16e has a new internal design, which allows it to give the device a bigger battery. In its 16e specifications Apple claims that the 16e has a battery life of up to 26 hours with video playback and up to 21 hours with streaming video playback. This compares to the Apple 16 which Apple claims has a battery life of up to 22 hours with video playback and up to 18 hours with streaming video playback.
Some of the performance differences that Speedtest data picked up between the iPhone 16e and the iPhone 16 may also be attributed to the fact that the C1 modem doesn’t have all the same capabilities that are featured in Qualcomm’s modems.
According to a Qualcomm comparison of the C1 and its mid-tier and premium modems, Qualcomm’s mid-tier modems support 4CA downlink carrier aggregation and its top of the line x80 and x85 modems support 6CA downlink carrier aggregation compared to the C1 which supports just 3x downlink carrier aggregation. Qualcomm’s mid-tier, x80 and x85 modems also support uplink carrier aggregation and uplink MIMO and the Apple C1 does not.
We will continue to monitor the performance of the iPhone 16e as adoption of the device increases around the world and we plan to publish a more comprehensive comparison across the entire iPhone 16 portfolio of devices. While we have not analyzed the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s performance here because it is in the premium device category, we do see it leading over the iPhone 16e in most performance metrics.
To find out more about Speedtest Intelligence® data and insights, please contact us here.
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
Having reached much of their 5G coverage and capacity goals in the urban and suburban areas of the U.S. in 2023, the big-three national U.S. wireless operators have turned their attention toward expanding their 5G networks into rural markets. This strategy is intended to help operators acquire new subscribers, particularly as growth in the urban and suburban markets has slowed.
But the big three U.S. wireless operators have taken very different approaches when it comes to expanding their 5G networks into less-densely populated areas. Of course, much of their strategies have been dictated by their spectrum holdings – particularly how much mid-band spectrum they were able to acquire.
Key Takeaways
T-Mobile has the largest percentage of 5G users spending the majority of their time on its 5G network in both urban and rural markets.
Nevada and Illinois are the only two states to make the Top 10 list for T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon when it comes to high urban 5G availability indicating that these states, and their large cities of Chicago and Las Vegas, have been a 5G focus for all three operators.
5G service is scarce in remote Wyoming, which makes the Top 5 list for T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon for having the lowest rural 5G availability. This isn’t particularly surprising as Wyoming ranks 49th in population density among all 50 states.
For this analysis, we used Ookla®’s 5G Availability metric, which shows how likely a user, on average, is to have 5G service available. 5G Availability is impacted by 5G network coverage, but also the network policies of each mobile provider, which determine the conditions under which users access its 5G network. For example, some providers may prioritize 4G-LTE for less data intensive tasks. Ookla Speedtest® data provides a consumer-centric view of 5G Availability — recording the percentage of 5G active users connected to 5G a majority of the time, based on when the 5G icon is displayed on the device.
T-Mobile leads the way
T-Mobile has been the most vocal about its rural market expansion targets. During the company’s Analyst Day in 2021 T-Mobile executives said they estimated the company had about 13% share of households in small markets and rural America and they set a goal of reaching 20% by the end of 2025. The operator also has said it is committed to providing coverage to 90% of America’s rural population by 2026.
We compared Speedtest® users on 5G networks from the top three nationwide operators from 2019 to 2024. Our analysis shows T-Mobile’s growth and its lead in the number of 5G users spending the majority of their time on its 5G network in both urban and rural markets followed by AT&T and Verizon.
To determine urban vs. rural areas we used US Census Bureau’s urban-rural classifications. The Census Bureau’s urban areas represent densely developed territory, and encompass residential, commercial, and other non-residential urban land uses. Rural encompasses all population, housing, and territory not included within an urban area.
T-Mobile’s lead here is not particularly surprising. In our Speedtest®Connectivity report for the second half of 2024, T-Mobile recorded the highest 5G Availability score in the U.S. with 89.4% of its users accessing its 5G network the majority of the time.
Speedtest® users on 5G networks from 2019 until 2024
Speedtest®users on 5G networks from 2019 (when the first 5G markets came online) until Q4 2024.
T-Mobile: The Back Story
T-Mobile first started to deploy 5G in 2019 in its low-band 600 MHz spectrum, which it calls its Extended Range 5G. In September 2023 T-Mobile said its Extended Range 5G covered 323 million people and today the operator says the Extended Range 5G covers 98% of the U.S.
In 2020, not long after T-Mobile closed on its acquisition of Sprint, the company started deploying 5G in the 2.5 GHz spectrum. When T-Mobile purchased Sprint it acquired 150 MHz of Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum in the top 100 markets. One condition for getting the approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint was that the company was required to deploy 5G service to 97% of the U.S. population within three years and 99% of the population within six years.
When combining that 2.5 GHz spectrum with T-Mobile’s existing mid-band spectrum, the company gained control of 319 MHz of sub-6 GHz spectrum. Today T-Mobile refers to its 5G in the mid-band spectrum as its Ultra Capacity 5G and it now covers more than 300 million people in the U.S. with it.
T-Mobile’s 5G expansion is far from over, however. In May 2024 T-Mobile announced plans to purchase around 30% of regional operator USCellular’s spectrum holdings and all of its 4.5 million customers and retail stores for $4.4 billion. The deal is expected to close later this year.
Mike Sievert, T-Mobile CEO, discussed the company’s expansion into rural markets during its Q3 2024 earnings call. In that call, Sievert told investors that T-Mobile grew its share of customers in both top 100 and smaller markets and rural areas. He also said that the company believes it has lots of room to grow in underpenetrated areas.
Delving deeper into the data
We took a deeper look at our 5G Availability data to determine the percentage of users in each state with 5G-capable devices that are spending most of the time connected to 5G networks. The remainder of the users are those that have accessed the 5G network but spent the majority of their time connected to LTE. We specifically looked at Ookla Speedtest Intelligence® data from Q4 2024 to see which states recorded the largest share of users spending a majority of their time on 5G in both urban and rural areas. Once again, we used US Census Bureau data for our urban-rural classifications.
Top 5 States with the Highest Rural 5G Availability from T-Mobile (2H2024)
State
% of Users on T-Mobile 5G
Florida
83.58
Connecticut
80.62
Illinois
80.49
Delaware
80.39
Georgia
80.18
Top 5 States with the Highest Urban 5G Availability from T-Mobile (2H2024)
State
% of Users on T-Mobile 5G
Illinois
91.86
Nevada
91.78
Oklahoma
91.77
Florida
91.57
North Dakota
91.30
AT&T benefits from FirstNet for rural expansion
AT&T’s rural expansion has primarily focused on its building of FirstNet, the nationwide public safety network for first responders that uses Band 14, which is a 10 MHz block of spectrum in the 758–768 MHz and 788–798 MHz ranges.
In 2017 the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded AT&T the FirstNet contract and essentially gave the operator access to Band 14 700 MHz low-band spectrum so it could build a nationwide wireless network specifically for first responders.
But one of the key components to this agreement was that Congress wanted to ensure first responders even in remote areas of the country could have access to the network so it required that AT&T expand the FirstNet into rural areas that previously had little to no wireless coverage.
AT&T finished its buildout of FirstNet’s Band 14 700 MHz network in April 2023. That buildout entailed putting 700 MHz FirstNet radios on thousands of AT&T cell towers across the country, as well as deploying more than 1,000 new FirstNet cell towers in locations earmarked by state and public-safety officials.
AT&T’s FirstNet buildout was part of the company’s “One Touch” strategy, which referred to the company’s upgrading of multiple technologies — 4G LTE, 5G and FirstNet— at a single cell site during a single visit and essentially “touching” each site once in order to provide those upgrades and avoiding repeated visits.
Although initially FirstNet supported 4G LTE connections, in 2021 AT&T upgraded its FirstNet core to support 5G and in February 2024 the FirstNet Authority agreed to invest $8 billion over 10 years to enhance FirstNet’s 5G coverage and upgrade the network, giving it a dedicated 5G core.
AT&T said in October 2024 that the FirstNet network supports more than 6.4 million connections and 29,000 public safety agencies.
Besides its reliance on FirstNet, AT&T also has deployed 5G across its low-band spectrum and is building out its mid-band 5G network. The operator spent roughly $37 billion on mid-band spectrum licenses in the FCC’s C-band and 3.45 GHz auctions.
Top 5 States with the Highest Rural 5G Availability from AT&T (2H2024)
State
% of Users on AT&T 5G
Texas
78.17
Florida
75.24
Alabama
74.77
Louisiana
74.76
California
72.81
Top 5 States with the Highest Urban 5G Availability from AT&T (2H2024)
State
% of Users on AT&T 5G
California
92.47
Florida
91.1
Nevada
90.92
Texas
89.91
Louisana
89.45
Verizon relies on C-band and acquisitions
Unlike AT&T and T-Mobile, Verizon didn’t have a slew of low-band spectrum for its 5G deployment so the company deployed a technology called Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), which allowed it to run 5G on the same spectrum bands as LTE, effectively letting 4G and 5G users take turns using the same chunk of spectrum via 1 millisecond increments. AT&T also used DSS in some of its low-band spectrum.
Besides its efforts with DSS, Verizon deployed 5G in its C-band spectrum, which it acquired in a spectrum auction in 2021 for $52 billion. The company has an average of about 161 MHz of mid-band spectrum across the U.S.
But to cover rural America, Verizon primarily got access to spectrum through several acquisitions and effectively purchased many of its roaming partners. In 2020 Verizon purchased Bluegrass Cellular, which operated in 34 counties in Kentucky, and Chat Mobility, a wireless operator in Iowa. It also purchased Blue Mobility, a small wireless carrier that operated in New York and Pennsylvania. In 2021 Verizon acquired the assets of Montana-based Triangle Mobile and Chariton Valley Communications Corp., which operated a 4G network in Missouri.
However, all of these acquisitions primarily just expanded Verizon’s already strong 4G LTE network into more rural areas and didn’t help it expand its 5G network.
Because of this, most of Verizon’s rural 5G coverage hinges on its C-band deployment.
In its Q2 2024 earnings CEO Hans Vestberg said the company was expanding its C-band 5G network in suburban and rural areas. The company also revealed in October 2024 that it will spend around $1 billion to purchase a combination of 850 MHz, AWS and PCS spectrum licenses from UScellular. Although it’s unclear where those licenses are located, it’s likely that Verizon will use this spectrum to supplement its suburban and rural 5G coverage.
Top 5 States with the Highest Rural 5G Availability from Verizon (2H 2024)
State
% of Users on Verizon 5G
Ohio
56.07
Arkansas
44.51
Texas
43.09
New Jersey
41.8
Delaware
40.56
Top 5 States with the Highest Urban 5G Availability from Verizon (2H 2024)
State
% of Users on Verizon 5G
Ohio
73.86
California
67.76
Nebraska
67.45
Arkansas
66.26
Arizona
66.01
5G service is scarce in rural Wyoming
The state of Wyoming has the distinction of being the only state to have the lowest 5G Availability for all three operators: T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T. Of course, Wyoming is known for its low population density. Wyoming is the 10th largest state in the U.S., spanning 97,813 square miles but its population is concentrated in just a few cities: Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie and Gillette.
Based on Speedtest Intelligence® data, T-Mobile clearly has made the most inroads when it comes to customers having access to its 5G network. Verizon, meanwhile, with just 9.8% of users on its 5G network still has quite a bit of catching up to do.
Rural 5G Availability in Wyoming (2H 2024)
Operator
% of Users on the 5G Network
T-Mobile
59.29
AT&T
29.73
Verizon
9.8
Nevada, Illinois benefit from 5G focus
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Nevada and Illinois both appear to have benefited from a strong 5G focus from all three operators in their urban areas. Of course, Nevada is home to Las Vegas which hosts hundreds of high-profile conventions and sporting events, making it a perfect venue for showing off the latest in wireless technology. AT&T announced in 2019 that Las Vegas was one of the cities where it would be deploying low-band 5G. Likewise, Verizon in August 2023 announced that Las Vegas was its first market where it was able to use a full 160 MHz of its C-band spectrum to triple the available bandwidth for its 5G Ultra Wideband network. And T-Mobile touted its 5G coverage in Las Vegas in advance of the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix and the Super Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in February 2024.
Chicago is also a key market for wireless players with its Magnificent Mile and United Center events venue. AT&T made Chicago a priority by deploying 5G in its mid-band spectrum in the city in late 2020. And similar to Las Vegas, Chicago also benefitted from Verizon’s C-band 5G deployment.
Urban 5G Availability in Nevada (2H 2024)
Operator
% of Users on the 5G Network
T-Mobile
91.86
AT&T
90.92
Verizon
63.38
Urban 5G Availability in Illinois (2H 2024)
Operator
% of Users on the 5G Network
T-Mobile
91.78
AT&T
85.27
Verizon
62.5
Promise for more rural 5G is on its way
Although some states boast fairly strong 5G availability in rural areas, there are more efforts underway to improve rural 5G coverage throughout the U.S. In particular, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently established the 5G Fund for Rural America which will enable it to distribute up to $9 billion to wireless service providers to bring 5G service to more than 14 million rural homes and businesses.
The FCC has been collecting mobile coverage data to identify and target rural areas that may not otherwise receive 5G coverage if not otherwise subsidized. In August 2024 the FCC adopted final rules for the 5G Fund but the agency didn’t set up a timeline for the program. It’s set to be a reverse auction in which operators bid to serve areas with the lowest level of government support.
We will continue to monitor the status of urban and rural 5G coverage in the U.S. and track improvements that operators are making to their 5G networks. For more information about Speedtest Intelligence data and insights, please get in touch.
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
South Carolina is the only state where rural residents’ access to broadband outperforms those of urban residents
Millions of Americans still don’t have access to affordable broadband service and this divide is even greater for those who live in rural areas of the United States. However, South Carolina stands apart from the other 49 states for its strength in delivering broadband to its rural residents.
According to Ookla® Speedtest® data compiled in the first half of 2024, 56.4% of Speedtest users in rural areas of South Carolina experienced the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream compared to 55.1% of Speedtest users in urban areas of the state. Currently, South Carolina is the only U.S. state with a higher percentage of rural Speedtest users getting the minimum standard for broadband than Speedtest users in urban areas of the state.
Although some states, such as Connecticut and North Dakota, out-performed South Carolina by having a higher percentage of total Speedtest users in their state experiencing the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds, South Carolina is the only state where rural residents’ access to broadband outperforms those of urban residents.
In the above chart we compared South Carolina’s closing of the urban/rural broadband gap with that of West Virginia to better depict the results of South Carolina’s work.
South Carolina’s broadband advantage
South Carolina was early to recognize that the best way to get broadband to underserved communities in the state was to first create accurate, reliable maps of the state’s broadband network performance.
That vision was in large part due to the efforts of Congressman Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina). In an interview with Ookla, Clyburn said that his commitment to keeping rural health care centers open and the realization that they needed broadband connectivity to interface with larger teaching hospitals was what laid the foundation for him to become a rural broadband champion.
“I am very committed to creating rural connected health centers,” Cyburn said. “For this to happen, we need broadband.”
To create more reliable broadband maps, Clyburn enlisted the help of entrepreneur Jim Stritzinger, the former founder and CEO of Revolution D, who today serves as South Carolina’s Broadband Director at the Office of Regulatory Staff.
Back in 2019, Stritzinger, an electrical engineer by training, had studied the FCC’s original broadband coverage maps and realized that much of the agency’s data was based upon assertions by broadband providers, some of which were claiming to deliver 100 Mbps download speeds over their copper-based DSL service.
Instead of relying upon self-reported, advertised network speeds by internet service providers (ISPs), Stritzinger decided to develop a new mapping methodology which focused on the best deployed technology (i.e., fiber, cable, DSL) in each census block. Once the best available technology was defined, he then utilized advanced analytics to calculate likely available download and upload speeds in the same areas.
Congressman Clyburn enlisted Ookla and its Ookla for Good™ program to help with the effort and it was decided that Stritzinger would use Ookla Speedtest Intelligence®data to ensure the integrity of the mapping methodology by comparing calculated values with actual consumers’ network performance results as seen in Ookla Speedtest Intelligence data. The project kicked off in the summer of 2019.
“I built a brand-new set of South Carolina maps that ignored advertised speeds and instead used likely available speeds based upon the best deployed technology and available Ookla data,” Stritzinger said. “The results were game-changing.”
The Solution
Today, in his role as Director of the South Carolina Broadband Office (SCBBO) and with a full-time staff of six, Stritzinger’s team continues to innovate with Ookla. In early 2023, the SCBBO partnered with Ookla and IBM to develop a state-of-the-art Construction Dashboard.
“The SCBBO came to us with this idea — to take real-time Ookla Speedtest data — and to focus on the areas with state and federal investments. With this data, the hypothesis was that we could show the areas turn green on a map once construction completes and enough users were activated. Speedtests provide independent, third-party verification of consumer activity and they also provide engineering evidence that networks are meeting federal 100/20 standards,” said Lindsey Sample, IBM’s State of New York Technology Sales Leader. Sample worked closely with the SCBBO in her prior role as IBM’s South Carolina Data and AI Technical and Sales Specialist.
“Now that it is fully operational, the SCBBO’s Construction Dashboard is an amazing storytelling tool that brings to life, on a weekly basis and in a visual format, the impact of this government funding and the positive impact on real citizens that this work has in closing the digital divide,” Sample said.
By using the Construction Dashboard, the SCBBO can immediately determine if the state and federal broadband investments are meeting construction milestones.
“This allows us to check on the funding to make sure construction progress is occurring,” Stritzinger said, adding “the Construction Dashboard is critical for the SCBBO because we don’t release any broadband funds until projects are construction-complete and network performance is verified.”
Other states are following South Carolina’s lead and have started using Ookla’s Speedtest data to track network deployment progress and subscriber adoption. For example, Vermont is also working with Ookla and IBM to create a similar service.
Stritzinger and his team can also track the progress of federal broadband projects such as those funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (ReConnect) and the Federal Communication Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) as well as state-funded projects and even privately funded ventures.
One funding project that is garnering a lot of attention right now is the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) fund, which is being managed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). BEAD made $42.5 billion in funding available for U.S. states and territories and the program requires states and territories to provide plans for connecting 100% of locations. The NTIA on Dec. 5, 2024, released its Draft Performance Measures for BEAD Last-Mile Networks outlining anticipated standards for speed, latency and reliability.
Ookla Speedtest results are already used by hundreds of internet service providers (ISPs) for reporting network performance for other federal broadband programs such as the Connect America Fund, RDOF and others.
If the state does not need the full $551 million to connect all residents and businesses, it will work with state leadership to develop a plan for BEAD non-deployment funds. The SCBBO hopes to continue to build South Carolina’s broadband infrastructure and turn South Carolina into an “internet powerhouse” that will attract more industry.
For Congressman Clyburn, closing South Carolina’s digital divide is a big win. “I’m very proud of this accomplishment for South Carolina.”
Clyburn’s advice to other leaders that are trying to deliver broadband to rural areas of their state: “Innovate, innovate, innovate.”
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
As wildfires become more prevalent, wireless operators are becoming more adept at handling these types of natural disasters by quickly deploying cell sites on wheels (COWs) and other assets to try to maintain connectivity and minimize the downtime to the networks. In addition, operators are focusing their efforts on maintaining connectivity for first responders and emergency workers.
The recent devastating wildfires that were first detected in the Los Angeles area on January 6 —including the Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst fires — have not resulted in widespread wireless network outages. In fact, analysis of Speedtest Intelligence ® data reveals that users experienced a performance decline on January 8 but by January 9 the network performance was back on the upswing and by January 12 the networks were operating at nearly the same level they were prior to January 6.
In the chart above, the consistency percentage measures what percentage of a provider’s samples equals or exceeds both a download and upload threshold of 5/1.
This minimal impact to the wireless networks was also noted by Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: “While communications impacts are minimal so far, the FCC will continue to monitor how these sets of wildfires are affecting residents’ ability to receive the information they need to stay safe. Should conditions change, the agency stands ready to support in any way it can, including any requests to deploy FCC staff to help with any communications network recovery.”
Power outages
One of the biggest obstacles wireless operators had to deal with has been the loss of power to their cell sites. Reports of Southern California Edison’s power outages started to flood into Downdetector around 3 pm. PST on January 7 and peaked after noon PST on January 8 with more than 400 user reports per 15-minute intervals.
Drones and satellites
Verizon revealed on January 10 that its engineers were deploying portable generators to cell sites in its network that were impacted by the commercial power loss. In addition, it said that in areas where fiber was burned it had deployed temporary satellite assets to provide added connectivity.
The operator also said that it was using a fleet of more than 550 mobile assets, including drones and nearly 300 satellite-based assets to help provide connectivity where its traditional infrastructure was compromised.
T-Mobile also is working to refuel portable generators to keep its cell sites online and the operator also said it was working with SpaceX’s Starlink to temporarily provide its direct-to-cell satellite service which will allow users in impacted areas to receive wireless emergency alerts and send texts.
AT&T, meanwhile, said it has deployed its FirstNet Response Operations Group to help support firefighters and other first responders on the front lines with connectivity.
Ookla will continue to monitor the network performance during the California wildfires and will provide updates if we detect any changes.
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
Check out the full report available now with the complete results for all 50 states.
Affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband is considered a necessity in the U.S. because it enables people to access online classes, secure health care assistance, register for basic government services, handle their banking needs and participate in many other essential services.
It’s also critical to the economic viability of every state because it supports remote workers, enables businesses to operate more efficiently and attracts new enterprises to an area.
But many states have struggled to make broadband service available to 100% of their residents primarily because service providers are focused on providing it to areas where it’s most profitable. Using Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence® data, this report identifies the states that are currently delivering the minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds as established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to the highest percentage of Speedtest users. It also singles out the states that need the most improvement when it comes to delivering the minimum standard for broadband to their residents.
Key takeaways
Connecticut, North Dakota, Delaware and six other states are the top performing states because they have the highest percentage of Speedtest users that meet the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream. While comparing small, densely populated states with larger, sparsely populated states may seem unfair, we thought it was important to note the current performance of each state so we can track their progress in future reports.
New Mexico, Arizona and Minnesota saw the biggest improvement in the percentage of Speedtest users getting the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds (100 Mbps down/20 Mbps up) between the first half of 2023 and the first half of 2024.
Washington, Alaska, Illinois and Oregon have the most prominent digital divide of all the 50 states. These four states have the biggest gap between the percentage of rural Speedtest users vs. the percentage of urban Speedtest users that get FCC’s minimum standard of broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream.
Not surprisingly, less than 40% of the Speedtest users of Alaska, Montana and Wyoming (which are three of the least densely populated states in the U.S.), are receiving the minimum broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream.
Broadband in the spotlight
The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the importance of having broadband access and the role it played in allowing people to continue working and receiving access to healthcare as well as keeping students in school. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided $3.2 billion to help low-income households in the U.S. pay for broadband access during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This sudden focus on broadband accessibility, also prompted Congress to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 which set aside $42.5 billion for the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program and provided funding for every state to expand its broadband services. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) runs the BEAD program and the funding is being used for planning, infrastructure, and adoption programs in all 50 states, Washington, DC and several U.S. territories.
BEAD initially provided $100 million to every state with the remainder of the funding to be divided among the 50 states based upon their unserved and underserved populations. As of September 18, 2024, 44 eligible entities have been approved for both the Volume 1 and Volume 2 phases of BEAD. Volume 1 of the state’s proposal details the list of locations that are eligible for BEAD funding as well as a description of how certain entities can dispute the eligibility status of the various locations. Volume 2 includes each state’s description of how it plans to select ISPs and its overall broadband objectives. Once approved for both phases, states can then get access to the money that has been allocated for them.
To help manage these federal funds every state and territory established a broadband office that is tasked with determining the extent of their broadband coverage problems and draft broadband strategies that will resolve the problem.
The FCC in March 2024 decided to revise its current definition of broadband as 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream, which is a substantial upgrade from its previous benchmark of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speed that was first established in 2015.
This is the first time in nearly a decade that the FCC raised the speed requirement. Although this new benchmark is being used throughout the U.S., many households still lack basic broadband services.
Top performing states
Using Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence® data collected in the first half of 2024 we were able to compare the median download and upload speeds in all 50 states and identify the states that currently doing the best job of delivering the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds (100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream) to the highest percentage of Speedtest users.
At least 60% or more of the Speedtest users in Connecticut, North Dakota, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia are getting the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream. In Connecticut, which is the top state, 65.8% of Speedtest users are receiving the minimum broadband standard. But at just 65.8% that indicates that there is much more work ahead for states.
Interestingly, all nine of the states in this list have received final approval for both phases of BEAD funding. However, it’s unlikely that BEAD funding approval played any role in these nine states leading the rest of the country in delivering the minimum standard for broadband because BEAD funding isn’t expected to start impacting broadband deployment projects until 2025 at the earliest, with some states having to wait longer depending on their proposal status with NTIA.
Top performing U.S. states with over 60% of Speedtest users achieving broadband speeds
Rank
State
Percentage of Speedtest users achieving broadband speeds
BEAD funding approval
1
Connecticut
65.8
Yes
2
North Dakota
65.5
Yes
3
Maryland
63.7
Yes
4
Delaware
63.3
Yes
5
Rhode Island
62.7
Yes
6
Tennessee
62.2
Yes
7
Utah
61.8
Yes
8
New Hampshire
60.5
Yes
9
Virginia
60.1
Yes
Source: Ookla Speedtest data. *Note NTIA approval of BEAD funding is changing rapidly. While BEAD funds haven’t likely played a role in broadband deployments yet, they will in the future.
Southwestern US sees big improvements in broadband
New Mexico, Arizona and Minnesota saw the biggest improvement in the percentage of their residents getting the FCC’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds (100 Mbps down/20 Mbps up) between the first half of 2023 and the first half of 2024.
New Mexico leads the rest of the states with its gains in broadband in the past year. Ookla data indicates that New Mexico saw a 50% increase in the percentage of its population with access to the FCC’s minimum broadband speeds of 100 Mbps/20 Mbps. Arizona also saw a 45% jump in the percent of its population with access to the FCC’s minimum broadband speeds of 100 Mbps/20 Mbps.
Arizona, and specifically, the city of Mesa, AZ, has been a hotbed of activity for fiber deployments. In 2022 Google Fiber decided to deploy fiber to Mesa, AZ after the city council approved plans to bring a data center to the area. In addition, AT&T also announced plans to bring its fiber service to Mesa in 2023. These new fiber entrants are competing with existing broadband providers Cox Communications and Lumen.
U.S. states with largest year-on-year increase in Speedtest users achieving broadband speeds
Rank
State
Increase in Speedtest users obtaining broadband speeds (1H 2023 vs 1H 2024)
BEAD funding approval
1
New Mexico
50%
Yes
2
Arizona
45%
Yes
3
Nevada
37%
Yes
4
Minnesota
38%
No
5
Colorado
35%
Yes
6
Washington
35%
Yes
7
Oregon
32%
Yes
8
Wyoming
32%
Yes
9
Maine
30%
Yes
10
Utah
29%
Yes
Source: Ookla Speedtest data. *Note NTIA approval of BEAD funding is changing rapidly. While BEAD funds haven’t likely played a role in broadband deployments yet, they will in the future.
Sparse population equals inferior broadband
Not surprisingly, the most sparsely populated states in the U.S. tend to also have the smallest percentage of their population receiving the FCC’s minimum broadband speeds. Building broadband networks in rural states is incredibly expensive, and in some areas the terrain can make it nearly impossible. For example, in Alaska, where the ground may be frozen for many months out of the year, it’s difficult to dig trenches to install fiber.
Ookla’s Speedtest data collected in the first half of 2024 found that less than 40% of the residents of Alaska, Montana and Wyoming (which are three of the most sparsely populated states in the U.S.), receive the minimum broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream.
The digital divide is still evident in many states
A big part of the impetus behind the federal government’s BEAD program is to finally close the gap between those with and without access to broadband, or what is commonly referred to as the digital divide.
But there are still many states that have a prominent gap between the number of rural and urban residents that have access to the FCC’s minimum standard of broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream.
Using the Census Bureau’s urban-rural classification and Ookla data compiled in the 1H of 2024, Washington, Alaska, Illinois and Oregon have the biggest digital divide compared to the other 50 states. For example, while 61.1% of urban Speedtest users in Washington state receive broadband speeds of 100 Mbps/20 Mbps, only 28.7% of its rural Speedtest users receive those same speeds.
Breaking Down the Digital Divide
Percentage of urban and rural Speedtest users in each state with access to broadband speeds of 100/20 Mbps.
Broadband speeds are improving but more work is needed
U.S. broadband networks offer faster and more reliable connectivity to more people today than they did just a few years ago, however there’s still a large percentage of the U.S. population without adequate access to broadband connectivity.
Thanks to new funding such as the BEAD program, there are many efforts underway to improve modern broadband networks. We expect to see these advancements in 2025 as more states start to put their BEAD funding into action.
We will provide semi-annual updates on the broadband speed performance of providers in the 50 states and also to track the improvements that states are making to bridge the digital divide. For more information about Speedtest Intelligence data and insights, please get in touch.
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
Airline websites saw fifty times the average number of user reports on July 19, with Delta Airlines and Ryanair (a low-cost airline in Europe), having the largest number of reports in this sector, according to Downdetector.com.
A routine software update performed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike on July 19 caused what some believe to be the largest tech outage in IT history. Microsoft reported that the outage impacted around 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices causing the devices to display the blue screen of death.
The outage resulted in major airlines being forced to ground their flights, TV news stations going off the air, hospitals canceling medical procedures, and banks being unable to transfer customers’ funds.
Downdetector by Ookla, which monitors real-time performance for thousands of popular web services globally, had a front row seat to the July 19 outage. Nearly 5 million reports were made to Downdetector.com on the status of different websites, which was more than three times the average number of users that typically visit the Downdetector site every day.
All major sectors of the economy see spike in outage reports
Downdetector reported surges in outage reports across a variety of sectors, from emergency services, which saw the largest increase over its daily average, at 68x, to airlines, retail, banking, and even dating services.
Not surprisingly, Microsoft bore the brunt of user reported outages. Microsoft witnessed a 42x increase over its daily average, while Microsoft 365, its cloud-based productivity suite, saw user reports increase 18x. Microsoft Azure was also impacted, with user reported outages up 21x.
Beyond software providers, transport, airlines, ride sharing and even e-commerce and delivery services saw large spikes in outage reports. Tesla saw an increase of 12x over its daily average, while user reported outages for Uber were up 57x, and Uber Eats experienced a 41x increase. Amazon witnessed a 14x increase in outage reports, while DHL and Fedex saw 6x and 4x increases respectively.
Verticals Impacted by CrowdStrike IT Outage
Increase in Outage Reports | Downdetector® | July 2024
Airline sites hit with 50% rise in reports
As was widely reported in the news, the airline industry was significantly impacted by the Crowdstrike-induced outage. OAG, a provider of digital flight information, reported that the world’s 20 largest airlines canceled nearly 10,000 flights between July 19 and July 21.
Delta Airlines was by far the most impacted of the large global airlines, having canceled 5,300 flights since the outage started. The airline is now under federal investigation for how it’s handling the delays and cancellations.
Not surprisingly, Downdetector’s data on the various airline websites shows that the airline category of websites experienced more than 50 times the average number of user reports on July 19, with Delta Airlines and Ryanair (a low-cost airline covering Europe), leading this sector. In fact, Delta alone experienced a 92x increase in user reports on July 19 compared to its typical daily average and United Airlines saw a 57x increase. Delta was still experiencing more than 6x the average daily number of user reports four days after the outage on July 23.
Airlines Impacted by CrowdStrike IT Outage
Number of Outage Reports | Downdetector® | July 2024
Digital banks and financial companies also struggled to serve their customers during the outage. Visa received more than 64,000 user reports on July 19 compared to its typical daily average of just 1,500 and online bank TDBank also saw its user reports increase to more than 56,000 on the 19th compared to its typical daily average of 240 reports.
Although most company websites have rebounded from the Crowdstrike debacle, the outage showcased just how vulnerable today’s websites are to software glitches and updates and how important tools like Downdetector.com are to providing real-time analysis.
Downdetector.com leverages more than 25 million monthly reports from individual users to make sure you have reliable information about the status of services that are important to you. For more, please read this blog post.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated August 6 from 5 million users to 5 million reports to better reflect how Downdetector tracks the number of outage reports submitted.
Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.
