Who can actually get gigabit internet in America?
69.1% of the 162,419,094 residential units in the FCC's filing can get 1 Gbps down and 100 Mbps up from at least one company. The other 30.9% cannot, and where they live is not where you would guess.
The finding: speed and choice are close to unrelated
It is natural to assume the places with the fewest internet companies are also the slowest. Across the 52 states and territories that appear in both this dataset and our block level competition study, that relationship is weak. The correlation between gigabit availability and the share of homes with at most one wired company is -0.311.
A correlation of -0.311 means the two move together slightly, and that knowing one tells you very little about the other. The clearest case is North Dakota: 93.5% of its residential units can get gigabit, which is rank 2 of 56, while 39.3% of its homes sit in a census block where at most one wired company reports service, the worst figure in the country.
In plain terms: a monopoly can be fast, and a competitive market can be slow. Anyone using speed as a proxy for competition, or the reverse, is measuring the wrong thing.
The mechanism is visible one level down. See wired competition in every Alaska county, wired competition in every Delaware county, wired competition in every Idaho county, wired competition in every Maryland county, wired competition in every Massachusetts county, wired competition in every Montana county, wired competition in every New Jersey county, wired competition in every New York county, wired competition in every North Dakota county, wired competition in every Oklahoma county, wired competition in every Pennsylvania county, wired competition in every South Dakota county, wired competition in every Virginia county, wired competition in every Wyoming county: the counties with the worst competition score are the ones a single rural cooperative has fibered end to end.
What the country can get, by speed tier
Share of residential units where at least one company reports it can deliver each tier.
| Speed tier | Share of residential units |
|---|---|
| 25/3 Mbps | 100.0% |
| 100/20 Mbps | 100.0% |
| 250/25 Mbps | 100.0% |
| 1 Gbps / 100 Mbps | 69.1% |
The first three tiers are effectively universal because satellite reports nationwide coverage at them. The gigabit row is the one that separates places, because no satellite operator reports it.
Which technologies deliver gigabit
| Technology | Share of residential units at 1 Gbps / 100 Mbps |
|---|---|
| Fiber | 50.1% |
| Cable | 32.8% |
| Fixed Wireless | 2.9% |
| DSL / Copper | 0.1% |
| Satellite | 0% |
Fiber and cable are the only two that matter at this tier, and they reach different places, which is why the national figure is higher than either one alone.
Every state and territory, ranked by gigabit availability
56 rows. The last two columns come from the block level competition study and are blank for the 4 territories that study does not cover: American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the US Virgin Islands, all four below its 50,000 location floor. That is why the competition study publishes 52 geographies and this page publishes 56. The gap is deliberate. It matters here, because the geography ranked first on this table, United States Virgin Islands, is one of the four.
| # | State or territory | Residential units | Gigabit | Via fiber | Via cable | At most one wired company | No fiber in the block |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States Virgin Islands | 57,469 | 99.6% | 35.3% | 99.6% | not measured | not measured |
| 2 | North Dakota | 452,871 | 93.5% | 67.1% | 50.1% | 39.3% | 22.2% |
| 3 | Connecticut | 1,660,883 | 90.1% | 70.1% | 54.7% | 1.4% | 2.8% |
| 4 | Utah | 1,405,470 | 87.5% | 70.0% | 63.1% | 11.9% | 14.8% |
| 5 | Tennessee | 3,526,181 | 86.2% | 73.8% | 36.5% | 10.3% | 13.3% |
| 6 | New Hampshire | 717,969 | 86.1% | 62.6% | 53.8% | 4.5% | 12.8% |
| 7 | Kansas | 1,487,297 | 84.6% | 75.4% | 33.7% | 23.1% | 15.9% |
| 8 | Nevada | 1,454,275 | 84.2% | 27.1% | 75.0% | 9.5% | 44.4% |
| 9 | Kentucky | 2,278,158 | 80.7% | 66.2% | 49.4% | 20.6% | 19.3% |
| 10 | Nebraska | 998,839 | 80.3% | 69.7% | 28.2% | 20.7% | 16.3% |
| 11 | District of Columbia | 385,672 | 79.7% | 15.5% | 75.4% | 1.8% | 4.1% |
| 12 | New Jersey | 4,146,970 | 79.5% | 54.6% | 39.5% | 25.6% | 23.8% |
| 13 | Iowa | 1,661,913 | 79.1% | 69.0% | 20.9% | 22.8% | 16.0% |
| 14 | Colorado | 2,894,616 | 78.7% | 44.9% | 53.9% | 10.5% | 36.0% |
| 15 | Texas | 13,947,589 | 78.0% | 63.7% | 38.4% | 14.5% | 16.4% |
| 16 | Georgia | 5,078,917 | 77.0% | 59.8% | 37.7% | 9.8% | 16.3% |
| 17 | South Dakota | 498,516 | 76.6% | 63.5% | 23.2% | 35.8% | 17.5% |
| 18 | Maryland | 2,754,300 | 76.1% | 29.0% | 64.6% | 26.8% | 25.4% |
| 19 | Hawaii | 603,504 | 76.0% | 62.9% | 18.0% | 4.3% | 4.0% |
| 20 | Indiana | 3,321,739 | 75.1% | 62.7% | 26.9% | 12.1% | 21.6% |
| 21 | Puerto Rico | 1,596,460 | 74.8% | 61.9% | 0% | 7.9% | 24.7% |
| 22 | Missouri | 3,140,991 | 74.5% | 60.9% | 37.0% | 19.7% | 24.3% |
| 23 | Vermont | 374,439 | 74.2% | 63.4% | 27.0% | 11.8% | 20.7% |
| 24 | Illinois | 6,056,155 | 73.1% | 40.1% | 50.7% | 13.3% | 48.1% |
| 25 | Arkansas | 1,608,780 | 71.9% | 61.0% | 24.2% | 18.3% | 23.6% |
| 26 | Oklahoma | 2,056,192 | 71.9% | 60.8% | 27.8% | 23.3% | 20.4% |
| 27 | Florida | 11,477,157 | 71.4% | 55.6% | 32.1% | 7.6% | 21.5% |
| 28 | Oregon | 2,072,052 | 70.2% | 47.9% | 42.9% | 9.4% | 28.5% |
| 29 | Mississippi | 1,612,924 | 68.9% | 64.3% | 9.9% | 18.4% | 20.8% |
| 30 | Minnesota | 2,853,970 | 68.0% | 51.1% | 33.3% | 15.2% | 28.5% |
| 31 | Washington | 3,682,084 | 67.4% | 35.1% | 51.2% | 13.7% | 47.5% |
| 32 | Massachusetts | 3,332,272 | 67.1% | 16.7% | 60.7% | 37.9% | 38.5% |
| 33 | South Carolina | 2,774,232 | 66.9% | 59.6% | 13.2% | 14.8% | 21.2% |
| 34 | California | 16,283,265 | 66.5% | 39.8% | 34.2% | 10.1% | 39.1% |
| 35 | Pennsylvania | 6,356,781 | 66.3% | 36.9% | 47.1% | 25.2% | 30.3% |
| 36 | Maine | 816,527 | 65.1% | 58.1% | 11.9% | 8.6% | 22.5% |
| 37 | Louisiana | 2,357,476 | 63.5% | 51.8% | 23.9% | 15.4% | 27.7% |
| 38 | New York | 9,267,668 | 63.5% | 57.8% | 9.8% | 24.2% | 19.3% |
| 39 | Alabama | 2,683,418 | 63.2% | 58.1% | 14.7% | 15.5% | 23.4% |
| 40 | Wyoming | 311,347 | 62.5% | 48.4% | 3.9% | 28.2% | 41.1% |
| 41 | Delaware | 511,215 | 62.2% | 28.7% | 47.0% | 35.5% | 33.5% |
| 42 | Arizona | 3,594,796 | 61.5% | 23.4% | 43.3% | 14.4% | 52.3% |
| 43 | North Carolina | 5,526,391 | 61.0% | 58.2% | 5.2% | 8.8% | 20.6% |
| 44 | Ohio | 5,833,546 | 58.5% | 51.2% | 19.2% | 10.8% | 31.1% |
| 45 | Virginia | 4,083,985 | 54.8% | 30.0% | 33.4% | 23.2% | 19.8% |
| 46 | Michigan | 5,061,891 | 54.1% | 34.7% | 27.8% | 17.2% | 49.2% |
| 47 | Wisconsin | 3,151,537 | 52.8% | 49.1% | 6.1% | 18.8% | 34.6% |
| 48 | Rhode Island | 530,201 | 50.9% | 0.5% | 50.6% | 11.0% | 7.0% |
| 49 | West Virginia | 996,362 | 49.4% | 38.9% | 16.4% | 20.8% | 37.0% |
| 50 | Montana | 616,912 | 48.8% | 35.3% | 3.8% | 33.9% | 46.9% |
| 51 | Guam | 51,512 | 46.0% | 46.0% | 0% | not measured | not measured |
| 52 | Idaho | 918,136 | 45.6% | 41.8% | 2.0% | 24.6% | 43.1% |
| 53 | New Mexico | 1,081,272 | 36.7% | 26.7% | 10.9% | 20.1% | 62.7% |
| 54 | Alaska | 383,830 | 12.5% | 12.5% | 0% | 36.6% | 69.4% |
| 55 | Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands | 18,355 | 0.8% | 0.8% | 0% | not measured | not measured |
| 56 | American Samoa | 11,815 | 0.0% | 0% | 0% | not measured | not measured |
The 25 counties with the least gigabit access
Measured across 3,185 counties with at least 1,000 residential units. 27 of them report no gigabit service at all, from any company, on any technology.
| County | Gigabit | Residential units |
|---|---|---|
| Lake County | 0% | 37,554 |
| Monroe County | 0.0% | 8,490 |
| Claiborne Parish | 0% | 8,022 |
| Western District | 0% | 7,548 |
| Bethel Census Area | 0% | 7,293 |
| Kodiak Island Borough | 0% | 6,374 |
| Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area | 0% | 6,191 |
| Johnston County | 0% | 5,897 |
| Love County | 0% | 5,619 |
| Nome Census Area | 0% | 4,886 |
| Wheeler County | 0% | 3,989 |
| Eastern District | 0% | 3,736 |
| Coal County | 0% | 3,570 |
| Baca County | 0% | 2,946 |
| Northwest Arctic Borough | 0% | 2,940 |
| Kusilvak Census Area | 0% | 2,914 |
| Bent County | 0% | 2,625 |
| Dillingham Census Area | 0% | 2,537 |
| Lewis County | 0% | 2,535 |
| Lake and Peninsula Borough | 0% | 2,419 |
| Hoonah-Angoon Census Area | 0% | 2,137 |
| Elk County | 0% | 2,038 |
| Meagher County | 0% | 1,701 |
| Aleutians West Census Area | 0% | 1,484 |
| Aleutians East Borough | 0% | 1,185 |
Counties below 1,000 residential units are excluded. A county with a few hundred homes produces percentages that swing on a handful of addresses, and a worst-in-America list topped by statistical noise is not a finding.
And the counties where gigabit is close to universal
| County | Gigabit | Residential units |
|---|---|---|
| Sheridan County | 100.0% | 1,120 |
| Oliver County | 100.0% | 1,167 |
| Golden Valley County | 100.0% | 1,245 |
| Logan County | 100.0% | 1,419 |
| Sully County | 100.0% | 1,525 |
| Towner County | 100.0% | 1,684 |
| Eddy County | 100.0% | 1,700 |
| Griggs County | 100.0% | 1,705 |
| Renville County | 100.0% | 1,754 |
| Burke County | 100.0% | 1,761 |
| McPherson County | 100.0% | 1,832 |
| Hettinger County | 100.0% | 1,975 |
| Graham County | 100.0% | 1,998 |
| Kidder County | 100.0% | 2,018 |
| Bowman County | 100.0% | 2,059 |
Method, and what these numbers cannot tell you
The denominator is units, not locations, and the difference is large
Every percentage on this page is a share of residential units: 162,419,094 of them. Our competition study counts residential locations: 114,550,235 of them. A location is a building and a unit is a home inside it, so one apartment block is a single location and many units. Both figures are correct and they are not interchangeable. We state this rather than quietly using whichever denominator flatters a sentence, because a reader who assumes they are the same will conclude this site contradicts itself.
These figures are a ceiling, and the study's are a floor
Availability here is self-reported by the providers and the data is known to overstate coverage, so the true share that can get gigabit is at or below every number on this page. That bias runs in the opposite direction from the competition study, where overstatement moves homes into the at-most-one-company group. If you are quoting both, quoting them as a ceiling and a floor respectively is the accurate framing.
What "gigabit" means here
The FCC's top reported tier: 1000 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload. A company reporting it is stating it can deliver that service, not that any household has bought it or measured it. Nothing on this page is a speed test.
Source
FCC Broadband Data Collection, filing period
D25, published July 21, 2026,
residential rows only. Derived from
bdc_us_fixed_broadband_summary_by_geography_D25_21jul2026.csv.
License and reuse
Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Republish it, adapt it, use it commercially, in a newspaper or on a government page, provided you credit WhereFiber and link to this page. The underlying counts are facts from a public federal dataset and nobody can own them; the license covers this write-up and the arrangement of these tables.
How to cite this
Horvath, F. (2026). Who can actually get gigabit internet in America? Speed tier availability by state and county. WhereFiber. Retrieved from https://wherefiber.com/research/gigabit-availability/
Want a cut we have not published, by metro, by technology or for one state's counties? Write to contact@wherefiber.com and we will run it.
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