We studied the performance of 14 of the largest municipal networks from December 2024 through December 2025, and compared their performance to each other and to their ISP competitors.

Key Takeaways: 

• When compared to their broadband competitors, eight municipal providers in the U.S. that we monitored using Ookla Speedtest data beat their broadband competitors in median upload speeds and one municipal provider, Sherwood Broadband, outpaced the competition in median download speeds. We monitored a total of 14 municipal providers, however, one provider —EBP— did not have any competitors with enough test samples to compare its performance against. 

• Fort Collins, Colorado’s Connexion was the leader in median upload speed, delivering an average median upload speed of more than 300 Mbps for the entire 13-month period from December 2024 to December 2025.

• Sherwood Broadband in Sherwood, Oregon, was the top provider in median download speeds, delivering an average median download speed that surpassed 400 Mbps eight months out of a 13-month period from December 2024 to December 2025. 

• UTOPIA Fiber in Utah is a standout in latency, delivering the lowest latency of all 14 municipal broadband providers with a multi-server latency consistently in the low 6 milliseconds (ms) to 8 ms range.

More than 700 communities across the U.S. are served by some type of municipal broadband network that provides its residents with internet services. In simple terms, a municipal broadband network is an internet service provider (ISP) that is owned and operated by the local city or county government or a municipal utility rather than a private company like Comcast or AT&T.

Using Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence® data, we studied the performance of 14 of the largest municipal networks from December 2024 through December 2025, and compared their performance against each other and to their ISP competitors in their market. It’s important to note that some Speedtest data may reflect the speeds of the users’ broadband price plans vs. the  possible speeds that the provider can deliver. 

 We selected these 14 municipal providers because they are some of the largest in the U.S. based upon reported subscriber numbers  and because we had the most test samples from these providers. Notably, EPB in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is the largest municipal broadband provider in the U.S.,  did not have any competitors with enough test samples to compare its performance too. 

However, these municipal networks are not evenly distributed around the country due to the disparities in state and local laws. For example, in Texas, Nebraska, and Missouri, municipalities are prohibited from selling telecom services directly to the public. And in Virginia and Louisiana a local referendum must be passed before a municipal network can be launched. These types of initiatives are often met with criticism from large ISPs that argue that municipal networks create “unfair competition” because cities don’t have to pay the same taxes or can subsidize losses with taxpayer money. In states where these arguments win over the legislature, community broadband initiatives are suppressed. However, some states, such as Colorado and Washington, have recently repealed state restrictions opening the door to more municipal broadband networks.

Connecting Cities: Four Models of Municipal Networks

For this report, we’ve categorized the municipal networks we studied into four groups: 

• Local Referendum:  These are municipal networks that held local referendums to opt-out of restrictive state laws that initially prevented them from offering broadband or hold a vote as part of a requirement under state law. These include Connexion, NextLight and Pulse Fiber in Colorado;  LFT Fiber in Lafayette, Louisiana; and Cedar Falls Utilities  in Cedar Falls, Iowa. (LFT Fiber and Cedar Falls Utilities, while started by local referendums, are also ownednd operated by electric utilities so they fit into more than one category). 
  
• Owned and Operated by Electric Utilities:  About half  of the municipal networks in the U.S. are run by electric companies. These are municipal networks that were built and are operated as divisions of the existing municipal electric companies.  BrightRidge in Johnson City, Tennessee; CDE Lightband in Clarksville, Tennessee;  EPB Fiber in Chattanooga, Tennessee; NorthCentral Connect in Olive Branch, Mississippi; and OptiLink in Dalton, Georgia are examples of municipal networks operated by electric utilities. 
  
• Open Access Networks:  These networks are built and maintained by the municipality but operate as wholesalers or shared resources.  UTOPIA Fiber in Utah; and Sherwood Broadband in Sherwood, Oregon both act as shared resources with other ISPs or were built with the intention of being a shared resource. 
  
• Community-led:  This category is for municipal networks that are operated as a department within the city. FairLawnGig in Fairlawn, Ohio and GreenLight Community Broadband  both operate this way. 

Muni-providers smash FCC’s minimum broadband standard 

During the 13-month time frame from December 2024 to December 2025, four providers— Pulse Fiber, Connexion,  BrightRidge,  and Sherwood Broadband—consistently delivered the highest median download speeds. Sherwood Broadband registered median download speeds that surpassed 400 Mbps eight months out of the 13-month period while Pulse and Connexion logged speeds over 400 Mbps for two of the 13 months we analyzed.

LFT Fiber and Greenlight Community Broadband trailed the 14-provider field with median download speeds under 200 Mbps during eight of the 13 months we analyzed. However, those download speeds are still well above the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) minimum standard for broadband of 100 Mbps download speeds and 20 Mbps upload speeds. 

Connexion was the top provider in median upload speed, delivering an average median upload speed of more than 300 Mbps for the entire time period. Pulse Fiber delivered median upload speeds of more than 300 Mbps for 10 of the 13 months and Sherwood delivered 300 Mbps or more median upload speeds for eight of the 13 months. 

Upload speeds were an area where  many municipal networks outshined their competitors. Eight municipal networks — Pulse Fiber, FairlawnGig, Connexion, Greenlight Community Broadband, Sherwood Broadband, OptiLink, Cedar Falls Utilities, and NextLight — all surpassed their broadband competitors in median upload speeds. 

Municipal networks bypass legacy bottlenecks 

Unlike their ISP competitors, municipal broadband networks typically are built using fiber optic technology and aren’t reliant on any legacy infrastructure such as copper phone lines or coaxial cable. 

Onf the big benefits of  having a fiber network is that they can deliver symmetrical upload and download speeds and avoid “bufferbloat” —a phenomenon that occurs when there’s a large amount of traffic that congests the connection.  Cable networks often suffer from bufferbloat because they have asymmetrical speeds and  slower upload speeds, often leading to higher latency during times of congestion.  Because municipal networks use fiber networks with symmetrical speeds, they can avoid the bufferbloat problem. 

Plus, municipal broadband networks are designed to provide broadband only to a specific community which means that the network’s central office or the heart of the network where all switching and routing occurs, is located in close proximity. This is different from a large regional or national network where traffic may need to be routed to distant regional hubs. 

Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) Fiber is a standout in latency because it consistently delivered a multi-server latency in the low 6 milliseconds (ms) to 8 ms range.  This was the lowest latency of all 14 municipal broadband providers in nine of the 13 months we analyzed.

UTOPIA Fiber is different from some municipal providers because it’s an open access network that is funded by the Utah Infrastructure Agency. UTOPIA builds and maintains the network and hosts more than 15 competing ISPs that sell the service to the consumer.

Community networks started by local referendum

Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU)

Cedar Falls, Iowa

• Background:  In 1994 over 70% of Cedar Falls, Iowa, residents voted in favor of creating a municipal communications utility. This vote was a legal requirement under Iowa law for any city that wanted to establish or expand a municipal utility into the “communications” sector. Initially CFU deployed HFC for cable TV and later expanded into internet and phone service.  In 2013 CFU completed a fiber project and deployed fiber to every single home and business in the city earning it the title of Iowa’s first “Gigabit City.”  In 2020 CFU upgraded much of its equipment so it could offer 10-Gbps service and also used a $2.3 million state grant to expand its fiber network into rural areas outside the city limits.
  
• Customers: 16,970 customers as of July 21, 2025. (2026 budget book)
  
• Competitors: Mediacom is CFU’s main competitor. Mediacom, which uses the brand name Xtream, operates an HFC network that covers nearly 99% of the city. The company has been expanding its 2-Gbps service into more areas. 

Cableco Mediacom’s median download speeds are higher than municipal provider CFU. For example, in December 2024 Mediacom recorded a median download speed of 407.38 Mbps compared to CFU, which had a median download speed of 281.56 Mbps. In December 2025 the gap had narrowed slightly with Mediacom recording a median download speed of 361.4 Mbps compared to CFU with a download speed of 311.64 Mbps.  

However, because CFU is able to deliver more symmetrical speeds its median upload speeds are nearly 5x higher than Mediacom. CFU’s median upload speed in December 2025 was 247.55 Mbps compared to Mediacom which had  a median upload speed of 49.99 Mbps.

CFU outshines Mediacom in median multi-server latency where it consistently delivers low latency between 14 ms to 15 ms, which is nearly one-third that of Mediacom which has a multi-server latency that is typically in the range of 40 ms to 43 ms.

Connexion

Fort Collins, CO

• Background: Fort Collins initially applied for the Google Fiber challenge — a competition in which Google asked communities across the U.S. to apply to be the first location for its fiber service. More than 1,000 communities competed and Kansas City won the challenge. However, this sparked local interest for a city-owned alternative to the broadband services provided by national ISPs. To move forward Fort Collins residents had to approve a ballot measure allowing them to opt-out of a state law that restricted cities from offering internet services. A 2015 ballot measure was approved by voters followed by a $150 million bond measure to fund the building of the network. Construction of Connexion’s fiber network started in 2018 and the first customers were signed up in 2019. By the end of 2022 most of the network was complete. 
  
• Customers: 25,508 as of year-end 2025 (per annual report)
  
• Competitors: Comcast’s Xfinity service is the primary competitor to Connexion and the cable company has been working to improve its upload speeds by performing mid-split upgrades to its nodes. 

Xfinity’s median download speeds improved during the 13-month period from 257.29 Mbps in December 2024 to 341.4 Mbps in December 2025. Connexion’s median download speeds dropped slightly during that time period from 364.01 Mbps in December 2024 to 317.04 Mbps in December 2025.  

Connexion, which is a fiber provider, outpaces Xfinity in median upload speeds (as noted above Connexion was the top municipal broadband provider in median upload speeds of the 14 providers we reviewed). 

Cable providers have historically had low upload speeds compared to  their fiber competitors because cable networks were originally designed to deliver one-way video traffic and not engineered for upload traffic. However, Xfinity has been upgrading its network with mid-split technology.  While mid-split doesn’t allow Xfinity to deliver symmetrical speeds, it does allow customers to get higher upload speeds if they have the right modem. 

During the 13-month period we see Xfinity’s median upload speeds increase more than 3x from 28.16 Mbps in December 2024 to 98.85 Mbps in December 2025. During the same time period, Connexion’s median upload speeds decreased from 325.6 Mbps in December 2024 to 246.96 Mbps in December 2025 but it is still able to outpace Xfinity in median upload speeds by a significant margin. 

Multi-server latency is another area where you can see the gap between fiber and cable. Connexion’s multiserver latency is consistently in the single-digit range of 8 ms to 9 ms during the 13-month period while Xfinity’s multi-server latency is more than double that in the range of 22 ms to 24 ms. 

LFT Fiber (formerly LUS Fiber)

Lafayette, LA

Background: Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) has provided electricity and water to the city of Lafayette, Louisiana for more than 125 years. In the late 1990s LUS built a fiber-optic ring to manage its electrical substations and in 2002 it started leasing surplus capacity to local schools and hospitals. The city soon realized that it could build its own fiber network for its citizens and in 2005 the city voted in favor of a $125 million bond initiative to fund a municipal fiber network. This move prompted some lawsuits from incumbent provider Cox Communications who argued that the city was using unfair financing.  Nevertheless LUS Fiber’s network launched in 2009. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic LUS Fiber partnered with the local school district and provided high-speed broadband to more than 10,000 students. LUS Fiber was recently  rebranded to LFT Fiber to better reflect its expansion beyond Lafayette. 

Customers: 25,000 (grant application)

Competition: AT&T Fiber is currently LFT Fiber’s biggest rival. The company started rapidly expanding its fiber footprint in Lafayette in 2017 and launched gigabit speeds to residents. In 2022 AT&T upgraded its network and started offering multi-gigabit speeds such as 2 Gbps and 5 Gbps, Most recently the company expanded its fiber footprint around Lafayette to surrounding areas where LFT Fiber is also growing its footprint. 

According to Ookla Speedtest data AT&T outperforms LFT Fiber by a large margin in both median download and upload speeds. The speed gap between the two appears to be growing. In December 2024 AT&T had a median download speed of 350.59 Mbps, which is a little more than 2x that of LUS Fiber at 170.51 Mbps. But by December 2025 that gap had grown to more than 4x with AT&T logging a median download speed of 473.80 Mbps compared to LFT Fiber at 112.90 Mbps. 

The gap in median upload speeds also increased from December 2024 when AT&T had a median download speed of 327.54 Mbps compared to LFT Fiber at 94.25 Mbps and December 2025 when AT&T had a median download speed of 424.17 Mbps compared to LUS Fiber at 107.70 Mbps. 

Median multi-server latency is one area where LFT Fiber had been outpacing AT&T at least until December 2025 when things appear to shift. LFT Fiber had a median multi-server latency of just 24 ms in December 2024 but it suddenly increased to 42 ms in December 2025, shooting higher than AT&T Fiber which has consistently had a latency in the range of 36 ms to 39 ms during the entire 13 months. 

LUS Fiber’s increase in latency may be due to the number of users that are on older Wi-Fi routers. Although the company has started rolling out newer Wi-Fi 7 gateways, many of its existing customers are reliant upon older generations of access points. 

NextLight

Longmont, CO 

Background: NextLight is a city-owned fiber network that got its start in the late 1990s when Longmont constructed a 17-mile fiber-optic loop to connect city buildings. Today the network covers about more than 90% of the city.  However, Longmont faced a major hurdle with its fiber network in 2005 when the Colorado Legislature passed Senate Bill 152 which prohibited local governments from providing telecom services unless the voters voted to opt out. In 2009 Longmont held a referendum asking voters to allow the city to bypass SB 152 but lost. The town tried again two years later and it passed with 60% voter approval. In 2013 Longmont voters approved a $45.3 million bond to fund the expansion of the fiber network throughout the city.

Customers: 29,000 residential and business customers (2026 budget) 

Competition: NextLight’s largest competitor is Xfinity, which is operated by Comcast. The cable provider covers about 97% of the city and aggressively offers bundled plans with mobile service and TV. 

Both Xfinity and NextLight consistently delivered median download speeds in the 300 Mbps+ range during the 13-month period with Xfinity logging a median download speed of 361.03 Mbps in December 2024 compared to NextLight with a download speed of 308.02 Mbps. In December 2025 the two broadband providers’ speeds were nearly on par with Xfinity delivering median download speeds of 341.93 Mbps compared to NextLight with 331.01 Mbps.

However, when it comes to upload speeds NextLight benefits from fiber’s symmetric speeds  and outperforms Xfinity by a large margin. During the 13-month period NextLight’s median upload speeds range from 279.23 Mbps in December 2024, peaking at 306.83 Mbps in March 2025 and ending at 297.86 Mbps in December 2025. 

Xfinity, meanwhile, hindered by coaxial cable’s technology roots as a one-way video distribution system, increased its upload speeds more than 69% during the 13-month time period. However, it still  failed to match NextLight’s upload speeds. Xfinity delivered median upload speeds ranging from 23.64 Mbps in December 2024 to 40.17 Mbps in December 2025. 

Among the other municipal broadband providers, NextLight is a standout in latency, consistently delivering single-digit multi-server latency of either 7 ms or 8 ms. That means NextLight customers will experience nearly instantaneous network responsiveness. 

Xfinity users also experience very consistent and fairly low latency in the 19 ms to 22 ms range but it’s more than double that of NextLight. 

Pulse Fiber 

Loveland, CO

Background: Similar to Fort Collins and Longmont, Colorado, the City of Loveland first had to hold a referendum in 2015 to opt-out of Senate Bill 152 so it could offer telecom services to its residents. That measure passed with the approval of 82% of voters and Pulse was created in 2018 as a division of the city’s water and power department. Construction started in November 2019 and was funded through a $95 million utility bond. The network was completed in November 2023 and is now expanding to neighboring areas, including the town of Timnath. 

Customers: 15,000-20,000 (estimated based upon 32% take rate)

Competition: Pulse’s main competitor is Comcast’s Xfinity service which is still primarily a hybrid-fiber coax network. However, Xfinity has been rolling out DOCSIS 4.0 in Loveland, which will allow them to offer higher upload speeds. 

Pulse and Xfinity are fairly neck-and-neck with both delivering median download speeds in the range of 300-400 Mbps. Xfinity had a median download speed of 301.46 Mbps in December 2024 increasing to 404.27 Mbps in December 2025.  Pulse logged a median download speed slightly higher than Xfinity of 328.65 Mbps in December 2024 which increased to 389.42 Mbps in December 2025. 

Once again fiber shines in upload speeds with Pulse Fiber clocking a median upload speed of 271.09 Mbps in December 2025 and climbing to 314.46 Mbps in December 2025. 

Although Xfinity did increase its median upload speeds 77.5% during the 13-month period from 44.98 Mbps in December 2024 to 79.83 Mbps in December 2025, it’s still far below its fiber competitor. 

Pulse also shines compared to Xfinity  in median multi-server latency. The muni-fiber provider has a low single digit latency of just 8 ms to 9 ms, which means its users will experience superior response times. This is compared to Xfinity with a median multi-server latency ranging from 22 ms to 24 ms over the 13-months time frame. 

Municipal networks owned and operated by electric utilities

BrightRidge 

Johnson City, TN

• Background: BrightRidge Broadband evolved out of Johnson City Power Board, the local legacy utility company.  In 2017 Johnson City Power Board transitioned into an independent energy authority and rebranded as BrightRidge. BrightRidge started a broadband division in late 2018 and launched a $64 million, eight-year initiative to combat the region’s digital divide by deploying a fiber and fixed wireless network.
  
• Customers: The company now has more than 53,500 fiber locations. It  served 20,972 customers as of fiscal year 2025. (annual report)
  
• Competitors:  BrightRidge’s primary broadband competitor in the Johnson City market is Brightspeed Fiber and Spectrum. Brightspeed was formed in 2021 by private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Brightspeed purchased the DSL assets of Lumen Technologies and has been upgrading many of those DSL assets to fiber. In Johnson City, Brightspeed has deployed fiber to approximately 26,500 locations, representing about 64% of their local footprint. The company offers symmetrical speed plans ranging from 200 Mbps to 2 Gbps.  Spectrum, which is owned by Charter Communications, offers broadband services in Johnson City using hybrid fiber coax. The company has a $5.5 billion network evolution project that it is rolling out nationwide to improve its upload speeds and network latency through the use of high splits and DOCSIS 4.0. 

According to Speedtest data, BrightRidge’s median download speeds increased from 229.88 Mbps in December 2024 to 397.02 Mbps in December 2025 and its median upload speeds increased from 252.86 Mbps to 288.75 Mbps during that same 13-month period. However, Brightspeed topped BrightRidge with a median download speed of 459.55 Mbps in January 2025 increasing to 504.77 Mbps in December 2025. Spectrum’s median download speeds were 313.12 Mbps in December 2024 increasing to 410.44 Mbps in December 2025. 

BrightRidge also trails Brightspeed in median upload speeds, with BrightRidge having a median upload speed of 288.75 Mbps in December 2025 compared to Brightspeed’s median download speed of 371.67 Mbps. However, both fiber providers are significantly higher than cable provider Spectrum, which has a median upload speed of just 22.72 Mbps in December 2025. 

BrightRidge and Brightspeed have fairly similar multi-server latency profiles, which is the measurement of the network’s responsiveness with a lower number equating to less delay. Both companies had a latency ranging from 28 ms to 30 ms.  However, Spectrum’s latency is a bit higher in the range of 34 ms to 50 ms.

CDE Lightband

Clarksville, TN

• Background: CDE Lightband was formed by the municipal power provider, Clarksville Department of Electricity (CDE), when the city’s electrical grid needed an upgrade. In 2007 the city passed a referendum to allow CDE to expand its services and build a fiber network so it could better monitor its grid. In 2008 the CDE launched its broadband unit to sell high-speed internet services. 
  
• Customers: 30,482 broadband subscribers as of fiscal year 2024-2025  (annual report)
  
• Competitors:  AT&T Fiber is CDE’s primary competitor in Clarksville. The company has aggressively expanded its fiber footprint in the area and offers speed tiers ranging from 300 Mbps up to 5 Gbps. 

According to Speedtest data, AT&T Fiber’s median download speeds are nearly double that of CDE Lightband. In December 2025 AT&T’s Fiber’s median download speed was 423.36 Mbps compared to CDE at 205.88 Mbps. There’s also a big gap in median upload speeds with AT&T having a median upload speed of 315.4 Mbps in December 2025 compared to CDE with a median upload speed of 205.45 Mbps.  

In median multi-server latency CDE initially was lower than AT&T with multi-server latency of just 11 ms in December 2024 however that latency increased over the year to 23 ms in December 2025.  AT&T Fiber, meanwhile, recorded a fairly consistent  multi-server latency ranging from 21 ms to 23 ms during the 13-month time period. 

Electric Power Board (EPB) Fiber

Chattanooga, TN

Background: Electric Power Board of Chattanooga (EPB) is a municipally-owned utility. In the late 2000s EPB decided to modernize its aging electric infrastructure to reduce power outages and built a fiber optic backbone to reroute power and prevent outages.  A secondary benefit to this fiber network was that EBP could deliver high speed internet to homes and businesses. EPB launched its first fiber-to-the-home services in 2009 and became the first operator to offer 1 Gbps services to the entire community. In 2015 EPB launched a 10-Gbps service and in 2022 it launched a 25 Gbps service.

Customers:  124,000 as of year-end 2025 (per the annual report)

Competition: EPB is the dominant player in the market. While AT&T Fiber is expanding in Chattanooga, Speedtest Intelligence doesn’t have enough samples of AT&T’s network to compare its performance to EPB. Xfinity also offers cable service to a portion of the city but not enough samples were available to provide an accurate comparison. 

EPB’s median download speeds fluctuated over the 13-month period from 193.35 Mbps in December 2024 to 176.45 Mbps in December 2025 but its median upload speeds have improved during that time period.  In December 2024 EPB recorded a median upload speed of 102.77 Mbps which climbed to 158.79 Mbps in December 2025.  The muni-broadband provider had fairly steady multi-server latency of between 8 ms to 12 ms. 

Northcentral Connect 

Olive Branch, Mississippi

Background: Northcentral Connect is the fiber subsidiary of Northcentral Electric Cooperative (NEC), a member-owned utility company. For decades Mississippi law restricted electric cooperatives from providing telecom services but that changed in 2019 with the passage of the Mississippi Broadband Enabling Act.  Northcentral Electric created Northcentral Connect in February 2020 because of demand from members who wanted reliable internet but were having difficulty finding good options. Northcentral Electric was already installing fiber between their substations to modernize their electric grid so the utility  created Northcentral Connect and expanded that fiber to DeSoto and Marshall counties and it is still expanding today. 

Customers: Northcentral Connect hasn’t reported subscriber numbers but says it has passed more than 18,000 homes with fiber. (annual report)

Competition:  Northcentral Connect competes with Mississippi-based regional provider C Spire Fiber. C Spire is aggressively expanding fiber in DeSoto County and other areas where Northcentral also provides services. 

Northcentral falls below Cspire in median download speed. The muni-broadband provider logged median download speeds of 306.02 Mbps in December 2024 and 320.30 Mbps in December 2025. Cspire, however, eclipsed Northcentral with download speeds starting at 386.26 Mbps in January 2024 and rising to 442.42 Mbps in December 2025.  

A similar pattern occurs in upload speeds with Cspire at the top with median upload speeds in the high 200s and low 300s. In December 2025 its users experienced median upload speeds of 312.16 Mbps. Northcentral is below Cspire with median upload speeds of 282.23 Mbps in December 2025.

Latency is one metric where Northcentral shines. Northcentral’s median multi-server latency starts as 31 ms in December 2024 and stays primarily in the 28 ms to 32 ms range except for two instances in February 2025 and December 2025 when its latency moves up to 37 ms.  CSpire’s median multi-server latency trends slightly higher than Northcentral with a multi-server latency of 42 ms in December 2024 and finishing at 33 ms in December 2025. 

OptiLink

Dalton, Georgia

Background: OptiLink is the telecom branch of Dalton Utilities in Dalton, Georgia, which is home to several massive carpet mills. In the late 1990s Dalton Utilities started building a fiber backbone to manage its electric and water systems. The city’s carpet mills needed high-speed broadband to stay competitive so Dalton Utilities launched OptiLink to provide fiber to homes and businesses in the city. In 2019 OptiLink became the first municipal network in Georgia to offer 1 Gbps speeds to residents. Later that year OptiLink launched a 10-Gbps residential service. 

Customers: Optilink doesn’t report subscribers but says it has a 50% take rate in a community of around 35,000. 

Competition: OptiLink’s rivals in Dalton, Georgia are Spectrum, owned by Charter Communications, and Kinetic by Uniti. Spectrum covers more than 88% of Dalton and offers bundles that include wireless and television services. Kinetic is a regional provider that offers a mix of DSL and fiber. 

Spectrum outperforms OptiLink and Kinetic in median download speeds. Spectrum clocked a median download speed of 345.95 Mbps in December 2024 and speeds ebbed and flowed over the 13 months rising to 368.80 Mbps in December 2025. OptiLink’s median download speeds were lower than Spectrum starting at 272.64 Mbps in December 2024 and rising to 298.71 Mbps in December 2025. 

Because Kinetic by Uniti operates a hybrid of DSL and fiber in its neighborhoods, its median download speeds fall far below the other two providers for most of the 13-month time frame but speeds start to dramatically climb in October 2025 with the company having a median download speed of 269.46 Mbps in December 2025.  This was likely the result of Kinetic’s rollout of XGS-PON technology across more of its footprint as well as its partnership with Amazon’s eero, which included certifying every home with Wi-Fi 7 coverage. This was a direct attempt by Uniti to combat its reputation for delivering painfully slow internet service. 

Not surprisingly, the competitive tables turn when measuring median upload speeds. Municipal fiber provider OptiLink delivers much higher median upload speeds than its competitors with speeds of 231.07 Mbps in December 2024 and ending with speeds of 252.09 Mbps in December 2025. 

Spectrum, meanwhile, impeded by coaxial cable’s poor uplink capacity, stays in third place with median upload speeds in the low-to-mid 20 Mbps range. 

Once again, we see the results of Kinetic by Uniti’s expansion of XGS-PON technology and its partnership with Amazon’s eero and the conversion to Wi-Fi 7.  Kinetic by Uniti’s median upload speeds grew dramatically from 25.22 Mbps in December 2024 to 269.46 Mbps in December 2025. 

Kinetic by Uniti also scores in median multi-server latency with a consistently low latency ranging from 11 ms to 14 ms. OptiLink’s median multi-server latency improves over the 13-month time frame, starting at 23 ms and dropping to 14 ms in December 2025. Spectrum has the highest multi-server latency of the three, ranging from 31 ms in December 2024 to 33 ms in December 2025. 

Open access networks

Sherwood Broadband

Sherwood, Oregon 

Background: Sherwood Broadband is a municipal fiber utility operated by the City of Sherwood. It got its start in late 2003 when the Sherwood Urban Renewal Agency purchased fiber for the city’s Old Town district to create a direct link to a data center in Portland for faster internet access. The city council then created the Sherwood Broadband utility in 2004. Initially Sherwood Broadband was focused on connecting city buildings and schools.  It also initially operated as an open access network with the city providing the infrastructure and a partner providing the actual internet. Sherwood continues to maintain this capability for commercial and carrier-grade customers but now sells services directly to residential customers.   In 2019 Sherwood Broadband decided to expand into residential areas and launched a fiber pilot project in 10 neighborhoods where conduit was already in place. In 2021 the municipality decided to launch a full rollout and the city council approved $20 million in revenue bonds to fund the expansion.  Now the utility has secured more funding and plans to extend its fiber footprint to surrounding rural areas. 

Customers: 1,200 to 1,500  (annual budget)

Competition: Like many municipal broadband providers, Sherwood faces competition from cable operator Xfinity, which is owned by Comcast. But it also has a fiber rival —Ziply Fiber —that offers symmetrical speeds. 

Sherwood outpaces its competitors in median download speed with speeds ranging from the high 300 Mbps to the 400 Mbps.  Sherwood has a median download speed of 390.95 Mbps in December 2024 and a median download speed of  399.41 Mbps in December 2025, which is higher than Xfinity with a median download speed of 272.36 Mbps in December 2024 and a median download speed of 376.68 Mbps.  Ziply falls into third place with a median download speed of 226.79 Mbps in December 2024 and just 201.13 Mbps in December 2025.

Sherwood also comfortably outpaces both competitors in median upload speeds during the 13-month period with an upload speed of 291.06 Mbps in December 2024 and an upload speed of 296.59 Mbps in December 2025.  Fellow fiber provider Ziply outperforms cableco Xfinity with median upload speeds starting at 214.56 Mbps in December 2024 and ending with upload speeds of 241.88 Mbps in December 2025.  

Despite nearly doubling  its median upload speeds from 23.72 Mbps in December 2024 to 41.45 Mbps in December 2025, Xfinity falls way below its fiber foes.

Sherwood Broadband also outpaces its peers by clocking in with low single-digit  median multi-server latency in the range of 7 ms to 8 ms. Ziply Fiber also has very low median multi-server latency in the 9 ms to 10 ms range. Both fiber providers are far below Xfinity’s latency which is in the 23 ms to 25 ms range.  

UTOPIA Fiber 

Utah

Background: Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) Fiber is unique to this list because it’s an open access fiber optic network with more than 15 private ISPs operating on its network. UTOPIA was created in 2002 by eleven Utah cities. Those cities issued bonds to pay for  the construction of the network, pledging their own sales tax revenue as collateral so if the network didn’t make enough money the cities had to cover the losses with their tax dollars. This model struggled and by 2008 the number of people signing up for service from UTOPIA was lagging and UTOPIA had to stop building its network. 

In 2010 nine of the former 11 cities created the Utah Infrastructure Agency to address the flaws in the original UTOPIA business model. Unlike UTOPIA, which deployed a bunch of fiber and waited for people to sign up, the Utah Infrastructure Agency uses its funds to build specifically in areas where there is demand. 

Customers:  70,000 subscribers as of year-end 2024 (release)

Competition:  Because UTOPIA is an open access network in multiple Utah cities, it encounters several competitors.  GFiber, formerly known as Google Fiber, is probably its largest foe. GFiber has a large presence in Salt Lake City and Provo and has been expanding into smaller cities in Utah. It also competes with Comcast’s Xfinity and TDS Telecom. 

GFiber outshines all the other providers in median download and upload speed. The company entered the Provo, Utah market in 2013 when it acquired iProvo, the city-owned fiber network and immediately upgraded it to gigabit speeds and provided free basic service to every home on the network for seven years.  It later expanded to Salt Lake City in 2016. The company offers a variety of plans from 1-Gbps service all the way up to 8-Gbps service. 

According to Speedtest data GFiber is consistently delivering median download speeds in the 400 Mbps range from 425.63 Mbps in December 2024 to 485.02 Mbps in December 2025. 

UTOPIA Fiber falls below GFiber, cable provider  Xfinity and TDS Telecom. TDS is a cable provider in southern Utah. Although TDS has been deploying some fiber in Utah, its speeds are more consistent with that of a cable provider because of its low median upload speeds and higher median multi-server latency. 

UTOPIA, while lower than the competition in median download speeds, is consistently delivering speeds in the 200 Mbps range with 233.16 Mbps in December 2024 and 264.57 Mbps in December 2025. 

GFiber leads the competition in median upload speeds with speeds from 320.75 Mbps in December 2024 to 356.76 Mbps in December 2025. 

UTOPIA outpaces the cable competitors by delivering median upload speeds from 215.53 Mbps in December 2024 to 228.07 Mbps in December 2025. 

GFiber also outpaces the competition in median multi-server latency by consistently delivering 4 ms of latency, which means its users will experience no noticeable delays. UTOPIA also outpaces Xfinity and TDS from December 2024 until July 2025 with a latency of just 6 ms. However, in August its latency increased to 7 ms and then again to 8 ms in September. Meanwhile TDS consistently delivered latency in the 8 ms to 9 ms range and Xfinity delivered a median multi-server latency in the 11 ms to 12 ms. range. 

Community-led municipal networks 

FairlawnGig

Fairlawn, OH

Background: FairlawnGig was created by the city of Fairlawn, Ohio, in 2016 with the goal of delivering better broadband speeds to the community as well as attracting more businesses to the area. The city financed the project with a $10 million bond and partnered with Fujitsu to be its network integrator. Construction started in 2016 and involved burying 55 miles of fiber optic cable. The network became operational later that year and reached every home and business within city limits by mid-2017. It later expanded to neighboring communities like Akron and Tallmadge. 

Subscribers: FairlawnGig doesn’t report subscriber numbers but says it has a 60% take rate in an area with a population of about 7,500. 

Competition: FairLawnGig’s primary competitor is Spectrum, which is owned by Charter Communications, and offers broadband services using hybrid fiber coax. The company has a $5.5 billion network evolution project that it is rolling out nationwide to improve its upload speeds and network latency through the use of high splits and DOCSIS 4.0. 

Speedtest data shows that FairlawnGig’s median download speeds increased 18.11%  from December 2024 when it had a median download speed of 284.84 Mbps to 336.43 Mbps in December 2025. Spectrum also increased its median download speeds over that time period 14.14% from 316.65 Mbps to 361.42 Mbps. 

While FairlawnGig and Spectrum have comparable median download speeds, upload speeds are another story. FairlawnGig has much higher median upload speeds than Spectrum.  In December 2025 Fairlawn’s median upload speed of 236.61 Mbps was 90.48% higher than Spectrum’s upload speed of 22.52 Mbps. 

Median multi-server latency is another big differentiator between FairlawnGig and Spectrum. FairlawnGig’s multi-server latency of 25 ms in December 2025 is 40% lower than Spectrum’s multi-server latency of 35 ms. 

Greenlight Municipal Broadband

Wilson, NC

Background: The city of Wilson, North Carolina decided to build its own fiber network after failing to get private ISPs to upgrade their broadband infrastructure. In November 2006, the Wilson City Council voted unanimously to build their own network. Instead of using taxpayer money, they issued $28 million in bonds, intended to be paid back by the revenue from the service itself. In May 2008, the city officially launched service using the Greenlight moniker. In July 2013 it became the first city in North Carolina to offer 1 GPS service to every home and business in the community. 

Customers: 19,239 (2025 Annual Report)

Competition: Spectrum, which is owned by Charter Communications, is Greenlight’s most significant competitor. Spectrum has invested heavily in its network in Wilson to try to match Greenlight’s offerings.

According to Speedtest Intelligence data Spectrum outshines Greenlight when it comes to median download speeds. But Greenlight greatly outperforms Spectrum in median upload speeds and in median multi-server latency.

Muni-broadband deliver competitive offerings 

Our review of 13-months of data in markets with municipal broadband providers shows that not only are these providers offering a valuable service to their residents, they also are often outperforming the national ISPs in upload speeds and latency. 

By leveraging fiber technology and prioritizing community-specific needs, municipal networks like Fort Collins’ Connexion and Sherwood Broadband are delivering speeds that outperform their competitors in the market. 

While traditional cable providers are making strides with network upgrades like mid-split technology to improve upload performance, they still largely trail the symmetrical speeds and low-latency profiles inherent to the “greenfield” fiber networks built by municipalities.

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