Fiber Internet Availability by State 2026: 55.9% of US Homes Can Now Get Fiber, and Rural Fiber Has Overtaken Cable
Fiber internet availability reached 55.9% of US homes in December 2025, according to the FCC’s National Broadband Map, up from 46.0% in June 2024. That is about 90.7 million residential units where at least one provider reports fiber to the premises. Rhode Island leads at 83.4%, Alaska trails at 15.1%, and rural fiber (48.9%) now exceeds rural cable (47.2%).
We downloaded the FCC’s Broadband Data Collection summary files for all four filings currently published on the National Broadband Map (data as of June 30, 2024, December 31, 2024, June 30, 2025, and December 31, 2025) and the provider summary for each filing. Every number below is computed from those files. The December 2025 files used here are the October 19, 2026 revision, the most recent available at retrieval. A residential unit is a home or apartment inside a broadband serviceable location, and fiber means a provider reports residential fiber to the premises at that location at any advertised speed.
Which states have the most fiber?
top 10 middle bottom 10 June 2024 level
Share of residential units with fiber to the premises available from at least one provider, December 31, 2025 filing. The dark tick on each bar marks the same state in June 2024. Hover a state for urban and rural values. 50 states and DC; territories are excluded from the ranking.
Rhode Island, Nebraska, Kansas, Tennessee, and Iowa have the most fiber, all above 73%. At the bottom, Alaska (15.1%), New Mexico (28.2%), Arizona (35.1%), and Michigan (35.3%) sit well under the national 55.9%. 38 of the 51 jurisdictions now have fiber at half or more of their homes, against 23 in June 2024. California, the largest state, is at 40.6%. The biggest absolute gains came in Texas (about 1.8 million more units with fiber since June 2024), Florida (1.5 million) and California (1.1 million).
Most fiber has been built where cable already is. Only 7 states have more homes with fiber than with cable: Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. Nationally, 46.3% of residential units can get both, 36.8% can get cable but not fiber, and 9.6% can get fiber but not cable.
How fast is fiber growing?
Each line is one state across the four FCC filings. Highlighted in blue: the four largest gains in percentage points. Red: Rhode Island, already near its ceiling, and Alaska, the lowest. The thick navy line is the US. Hover any line for its values.
The national share climbed 2.8 points from June to December 2024, 2.7 points in the first half of 2025, and 4.3 points in the second half, so the build pace picked up in the latest period. In unit terms, those half-years added about 5.3 million, 4.6 million, and 5.8 million residential units with fiber. The total count of residential units in the FCC’s location fabric fell by 2.4 million between the June and December 2025 filings, yet the number of units with fiber still rose, so the latest jump is not an artifact of a smaller denominator.
The fastest-growing states are mostly ones that started low: Maine (+18.6 points), Wyoming (+18.2 points), Louisiana (+17.0 points), New Hampshire (+16.7 points), Kansas (+16.1 points). Alaska (+2.7) and Rhode Island (+3.0) moved least.
| FCC filing (data as of) | Residential units | Fiber available | Units with fiber | Urban | Rural | Tribal areas | Rural cable, for comparison |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2024 | 163.3M | 46.0% | 75.1M | 48.8% | 36.8% | 44.0% | 46.8% |
| December 2024 | 164.6M | 48.8% | 80.4M | 51.3% | 40.5% | 47.0% | 46.8% |
| June 2025 | 164.8M | 51.5% | 85.0M | 53.8% | 44.1% | 46.9% | 46.2% |
| December 2025 | 162.4M | 55.9% | 90.7M | 57.9% | 48.9% | 52.0% | 47.2% |
All columns are shares of residential units in each area type, any advertised speed. Urban and rural follow the FCC’s area classification in the summary files.
Rural fiber has overtaken rural cable
The rural numbers moved most. Fiber availability in rural areas rose from 36.8% to 48.9% in 18 months while rural cable stayed close to 47% (46.8% in June 2024, 47.2% in December 2025). The December 2025 filing is the first in which rural fiber exceeds rural cable. In 15 states rural homes are now more likely to have fiber than urban ones, including North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Across all rural units, 29.1% can get fiber but not cable. Tribal areas sit at 52.0%, below the national 55.9% but up from 44.0% in June 2024.
Who builds the fiber?
| # | Holding company (as filed) | Units, Dec 2025 | Units, Jun 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AT&T Inc. | 24.08M | 19.68M | +4.40M |
| 2 | Verizon Communications Inc. | 15.24M | 14.74M | +0.50M |
| 3 | Frontier Communications Corporation | 7.55M | 6.11M | +1.43M |
| 4 | Lumen Technologies, Inc. | 4.10M | 3.52M | +0.59M |
| 5 | Charter Communications | 3.78M | 1.41M | +2.37M |
| 6 | Optimum Communications | 3.74M | 3.44M | +0.31M |
| 7 | Metronet Holdings, LLC | 3.05M | 1.81M | +1.24M |
| 8 | Google LLC | 2.42M | 1.95M | +0.47M |
| 9 | Connect Holding II LLC | 2.05M | 1.09M | +0.97M |
| 10 | Uniti Group Inc. | 1.63M | 1.41M | +0.22M |
| 11 | Comcast Corporation | 1.62M | 1.04M | +0.58M |
| 12 | Cincinnati Bell Inc. | 1.24M | 1.09M | +0.16M |
| 13 | Fidium Holdings, LLC | 1.23M | 0.93M | +0.29M |
| 14 | Cox Communications, Inc. | 1.18M | 0.73M | +0.45M |
| 15 | Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. | 1.07M | 0.86M | +0.21M |
The FCC’s provider summary counts the residential units at which each provider reports fiber to the premises. Footprints overlap where two fiber providers serve the same building, so the column does not sum to the national total.
AT&T Inc. is by far the largest, at 24.1 million units, and also added the most since June 2024 (+4.4 million). Charter Communications added 2.4 million and Frontier Communications Corporation 1.4 million. 1,522 holding companies reported at least some residential fiber in the December 2025 filing, and 1,438 of them reported fewer than 100,000 units each: the national footprint is a few very large networks plus a long tail of small local ones.
Grouped by FCC provider ID. Names are the holding company names in the December 2025 provider summary.
Fiber speed tiers, and how fiber compares with cable, fixed wireless and satellite
Share of all US residential units where each technology is reported at or above each maximum advertised download/upload speed, December 2025. Darker cells mean wider availability.
Nine in ten homes with fiber are offered gigabit service. Fiber is available at 1,000/100 Mbps or better to 50.1% of residential units, which is 90% of all units with fiber. Cable is available at more homes (83.1%) but reaches 1,000/100 at only 32.8%. Licensed fixed wireless now appears at 86.2% of homes but reaches 100/20 at 51.2%. The three largest licensed fixed wireless footprints in the provider summary belong to the national mobile carriers (T-Mobile USA, Inc.; Verizon Communications Inc.; AT&T Inc.), not to fixed wireless specialists. Low-orbit satellite covers 99.7% of units at 100/20 Mbps, almost all of it one provider (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.), which our Starlink statistics report covers in detail. Copper DSL reaches 100/20 at only 3.7% of homes.
The gigabit tier has a hard edge. The FCC counts a plan in the 1,000/100 column only if its maximum advertised download is at least 1,000 Mbps and its upload at least 100 Mbps, so fiber advertised just under a gigabit lands one tier lower. That is visible in a few states with high fiber availability but a low gigabit share: Rhode Island (83.4% fiber, 0.5% at 1,000/100), District of Columbia (62.5% fiber, 15.5% at 1,000/100), Massachusetts (50.1% fiber, 16.7% at 1,000/100), Maryland (63.6% fiber, 29.0% at 1,000/100). In each of them, at least 99% of fiber units are still offered 250/25 Mbps or faster.
Is fiber available in my area? How to check the FCC map
- Go to broadbandmap.fcc.gov and type your street address into the search bar.
- Keep the Fixed Broadband tab selected. The panel lists every provider that reports service at that location, with its technology and maximum advertised download and upload speeds.
- Look for a provider whose technology is listed as fiber. Use Service Filters to show only fiber; services below 25 Mbps download are hidden on the default view.
- If a listed provider will not sell you fiber, click Availability Challenge under the address. The FCC asks for details of your request for service and the provider’s response.
- If your building is missing or misplaced, file a location challenge instead. That disputes the location fabric, the FCC’s list of locations that every provider’s data is matched against.
The map shows what providers report as available, not what is installed in your building today. Providers file twice a year (by March 1 for data as of December 31, and by September 1 for data as of June 30), and the files are revised as challenges are resolved: the December 31, 2025 files used here are the revision dated October 19, 2026. A state average also hides big local differences; in California, for example, fiber reaches 42.0% of urban units and 21.4% of rural units.
What this means for MSPs
Check every client site, not the state. Before quoting a branch opening or a WAN refresh, look the address up on the FCC map and save the provider list to the site record. The gigabit tier is where fiber differs most: 90% of homes with fiber are offered at least 1,000/100 Mbps, against 39% of homes with cable. Offsite backup, VoIP, and site-to-site VPN all depend on upstream capacity, so read the advertised upload speed on the map, not only the download.
Rural sites are now worth a second look. Rural fiber availability grew 12.1 points in 18 months. Sites that were stuck on DSL or fixed wireless two years ago may now have fiber; recheck any client circuit older than a year. Price context is in our average internet bill analysis.
Plan for diversity, not only speed. Where both fiber and cable reach a site (46.3% of residential units nationally), two wired paths from different providers give real failover. Elsewhere, fixed wireless or satellite is the second path. Who still has no home connection at all is tracked in our internet access statistics.
Fiber availability by state: full table
| # | State | Fiber, Dec 2025 | Jun 2025 | Dec 2024 | Jun 2024 | Change (pts) | Urban | Rural | Fiber at 1,000/100 | Cable, any speed | Residential units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhode Island | 83.4% | 81.5% | 80.6% | 80.4% | +3.0 | 84.2% | 74.8% | 0.5% | 84.7% | 530,201 |
| 2 | Nebraska | 77.9% | 74.0% | 70.9% | 67.4% | +10.5 | 87.0% | 59.5% | 69.7% | 66.9% | 998,839 |
| 3 | Kansas | 76.6% | 72.0% | 68.6% | 60.5% | +16.1 | 82.7% | 63.0% | 75.5% | 72.5% | 1,487,297 |
| 4 | Tennessee | 74.0% | 68.2% | 64.5% | 61.4% | +12.6 | 73.0% | 75.8% | 73.8% | 81.6% | 3,526,181 |
| 5 | Iowa | 73.0% | 66.4% | 64.4% | 59.4% | +13.6 | 75.3% | 69.6% | 69.0% | 69.0% | 1,661,913 |
| 6 | Utah | 72.3% | 65.9% | 62.5% | 59.9% | +12.4 | 75.5% | 54.2% | 70.0% | 83.6% | 1,405,470 |
| 7 | Connecticut | 70.5% | 67.9% | 67.1% | 64.3% | +6.2 | 70.2% | 72.2% | 70.1% | 96.1% | 1,660,883 |
| 8 | North Dakota | 69.9% | 67.1% | 66.4% | 63.7% | +6.2 | 53.4% | 91.3% | 67.1% | 63.4% | 452,871 |
| 9 | New York | 69.9% | 66.7% | 64.8% | 63.0% | +6.9 | 75.4% | 38.6% | 57.9% | 92.5% | 9,267,668 |
| 10 | New Jersey | 67.3% | 65.1% | 64.4% | 63.3% | +4.0 | 69.1% | 41.5% | 54.6% | 96.3% | 4,146,970 |
| 11 | Kentucky | 66.3% | 62.5% | 59.9% | 56.4% | +9.9 | 73.7% | 56.6% | 66.2% | 72.4% | 2,278,158 |
| 12 | South Dakota | 65.7% | 57.0% | 56.6% | 60.6% | +5.1 | 52.1% | 80.4% | 63.5% | 56.7% | 498,516 |
| 13 | Mississippi | 64.4% | 61.4% | 57.6% | 52.1% | +12.3 | 61.5% | 66.9% | 64.3% | 60.1% | 1,612,924 |
| 14 | Hawaii | 64.2% | 58.4% | 54.6% | 52.9% | +11.3 | 64.6% | 62.5% | 62.9% | 91.8% | 603,504 |
| 15 | Texas | 64.1% | 58.7% | 55.5% | 51.4% | +12.7 | 66.9% | 52.9% | 63.7% | 79.5% | 13,947,589 |
| 16 | Oklahoma | 64.1% | 58.6% | 55.7% | 52.4% | +11.7 | 68.7% | 56.8% | 60.8% | 61.7% | 2,056,192 |
| 17 | Vermont | 63.9% | 59.8% | 56.7% | 50.0% | +13.9 | 73.1% | 59.6% | 63.4% | 72.6% | 374,439 |
| 18 | Maryland | 63.6% | 61.6% | 60.2% | 58.4% | +5.2 | 67.3% | 43.6% | 29.0% | 94.9% | 2,754,300 |
| 19 | Missouri | 63.6% | 59.1% | 54.0% | 51.5% | +12.1 | 70.5% | 49.3% | 60.9% | 71.5% | 3,140,991 |
| 20 | Virginia | 63.1% | 60.9% | 58.0% | 56.8% | +6.3 | 69.7% | 45.7% | 30.0% | 81.1% | 4,083,985 |
| 21 | Indiana | 63.0% | 58.2% | 55.7% | 52.7% | +10.3 | 64.6% | 59.4% | 62.7% | 80.9% | 3,321,739 |
| 22 | New Hampshire | 62.7% | 54.1% | 49.7% | 46.0% | +16.7 | 56.9% | 70.1% | 62.6% | 89.0% | 717,969 |
| 23 | District of Columbia | 62.5% | 60.1% | 58.8% | 57.6% | +4.9 | 62.5% | n/a | 15.5% | 97.6% | 385,672 |
| 24 | Arkansas | 62.0% | 58.6% | 55.4% | 52.7% | +9.3 | 61.6% | 62.5% | 61.0% | 63.6% | 1,608,780 |
| 25 | Georgia | 60.5% | 56.0% | 52.7% | 49.3% | +11.2 | 60.1% | 61.5% | 59.8% | 83.9% | 5,078,917 |
| 26 | South Carolina | 60.1% | 54.2% | 50.1% | 46.8% | +13.3 | 55.9% | 68.7% | 59.6% | 77.1% | 2,774,232 |
| 27 | Maine | 59.4% | 52.5% | 47.7% | 40.8% | +18.6 | 71.6% | 52.3% | 58.1% | 80.6% | 816,527 |
| 28 | Alabama | 59.0% | 52.7% | 48.8% | 46.7% | +12.3 | 62.2% | 54.8% | 58.1% | 72.7% | 2,683,418 |
| 29 | North Carolina | 58.9% | 53.0% | 48.7% | 45.8% | +13.1 | 65.0% | 47.7% | 58.2% | 81.3% | 5,526,391 |
| 30 | Pennsylvania | 58.4% | 55.5% | 52.4% | 50.0% | +8.4 | 66.9% | 33.6% | 36.9% | 90.3% | 6,356,781 |
| 31 | Florida | 57.2% | 52.1% | 48.0% | 44.4% | +12.8 | 58.7% | 44.2% | 55.6% | 88.1% | 11,477,157 |
| 32 | Delaware | 55.0% | 52.7% | 50.5% | 49.9% | +5.1 | 60.0% | 31.9% | 28.7% | 94.4% | 511,215 |
| 33 | Minnesota | 54.9% | 50.5% | 48.4% | 43.7% | +11.2 | 51.2% | 62.3% | 51.1% | 76.7% | 2,853,970 |
| 34 | Louisiana | 53.9% | 46.4% | 41.9% | 36.9% | +17.0 | 59.5% | 40.3% | 51.8% | 78.2% | 2,357,476 |
| 35 | Oregon | 51.8% | 49.4% | 47.8% | 44.5% | +7.3 | 55.1% | 39.6% | 47.9% | 85.4% | 2,072,052 |
| 36 | Ohio | 51.6% | 46.2% | 42.3% | 39.4% | +12.2 | 56.1% | 37.0% | 51.2% | 85.0% | 5,833,546 |
| 37 | Colorado | 51.0% | 47.4% | 44.8% | 40.8% | +10.2 | 54.2% | 36.0% | 45.3% | 84.1% | 2,894,616 |
| 38 | Massachusetts | 50.1% | 48.1% | 46.6% | 45.4% | +4.7 | 51.6% | 33.9% | 16.7% | 98.0% | 3,332,272 |
| 39 | Wisconsin | 49.6% | 44.5% | 42.1% | 38.2% | +11.4 | 52.2% | 45.3% | 49.1% | 72.3% | 3,151,537 |
| 40 | Wyoming | 48.8% | 43.7% | 38.8% | 30.6% | +18.2 | 59.4% | 33.8% | 48.4% | 64.7% | 311,347 |
| 41 | Idaho | 44.3% | 42.2% | 39.4% | 31.5% | +12.8 | 52.7% | 29.4% | 41.8% | 68.7% | 918,136 |
| 42 | Montana | 40.8% | 35.7% | 32.2% | 29.1% | +11.7 | 36.5% | 45.1% | 35.3% | 56.2% | 616,912 |
| 43 | West Virginia | 40.6% | 35.3% | 32.4% | 28.9% | +11.7 | 49.2% | 34.2% | 38.9% | 69.6% | 996,362 |
| 44 | California | 40.6% | 36.8% | 35.0% | 34.3% | +6.3 | 42.0% | 21.4% | 40.0% | 90.3% | 16,283,265 |
| 45 | Illinois | 40.4% | 35.9% | 33.7% | 30.9% | +9.5 | 39.9% | 43.1% | 40.1% | 90.1% | 6,056,155 |
| 46 | Washington | 37.8% | 35.8% | 35.4% | 33.2% | +4.6 | 41.2% | 22.5% | 35.1% | 86.6% | 3,682,084 |
| 47 | Nevada | 36.5% | 31.8% | 28.5% | 26.3% | +10.2 | 36.3% | 39.2% | 27.1% | 78.5% | 1,454,275 |
| 48 | Michigan | 35.3% | 31.1% | 29.7% | 25.5% | +9.8 | 34.9% | 36.3% | 34.7% | 83.6% | 5,061,891 |
| 49 | Arizona | 35.1% | 27.8% | 24.5% | 22.9% | +12.2 | 35.7% | 31.0% | 23.4% | 69.6% | 3,594,796 |
| 50 | New Mexico | 28.2% | 23.2% | 20.2% | 18.8% | +9.4 | 28.4% | 27.6% | 26.7% | 73.4% | 1,081,272 |
| 51 | Alaska | 15.1% | 14.3% | 13.9% | 12.4% | +2.7 | 12.9% | 18.4% | 12.5% | 66.1% | 383,830 |
Shares of residential units, FCC National Broadband Map summary by geography, residential service. Sorted by December 2025 fiber availability.
Frequently asked questions
Which states have the most fiber internet?
In the FCC’s December 2025 data, Rhode Island leads with fiber available to 83.4% of residential units, followed by Nebraska (77.9%), Kansas (76.6%), Tennessee (74.0%), and Iowa (73.0%). Alaska is last at 15.1%.
What percentage of US homes can get fiber internet?
55.9% of US residential units had at least one provider reporting fiber to the premises in December 2025, about 90.7 million units. That is up from 46.0% in June 2024. Urban availability was 57.9% and rural 48.9%.
How fast is fiber internet growing?
Fiber availability rose 9.9 percentage points in 18 months, from 46.0% in June 2024 to 55.9% in December 2025, roughly 15.6 million more residential units. The latest half-year, June to December 2025, added 4.3 points, the fastest of the three half-years in the data.
Is fiber available in my area?
Search your address on the FCC National Broadband Map (broadbandmap.fcc.gov), keep the Fixed Broadband tab selected, and read the provider list for any service labeled fiber. If a provider listed there will not actually sell you service, use the Availability Challenge link under the address. Statewide, the odds range from 83.4% of homes in Rhode Island to 15.1% in Alaska.
Is fiber more common than cable in rural areas?
Yes, as of December 2025. Fiber reached 48.9% of rural residential units and cable 47.2%. In June 2024 the order was reversed: rural fiber 36.8%, rural cable 46.8%.
Which company has the biggest fiber network?
AT&T Inc. reports residential fiber to the premises at 24.1 million units in the December 2025 filing, followed by Verizon Communications Inc. at 15.2 million and Frontier Communications Corporation at 7.5 million. 1,522 holding companies reported some residential fiber.
Methodology
Source. FCC National Broadband Map, Broadband Data Collection public data downloads: “Fixed Broadband Summary by Geography Type” (state, national) and “Provider Summary, Fixed Broadband”, for the four filings published at retrieval: June 30, 2024 (file revision July 27, 2026), December 31, 2024 (July 29, 2026), June 30, 2025 (October 1, 2026), and December 31, 2025 (October 19, 2026). Retrieved October 30, 2026. Older filings (2022 and 2023) are no longer offered on the download page, so the series starts in June 2024.
Definitions. We use the FCC’s own fields. “Fiber available” is the summary file’s speed_02_02 column for technology “Fiber” and residential service (biz_res R): the FCC’s calculated percentage of units in broadband serviceable locations for which providers report fixed broadband service of at least 0.2/0.2 Mbps over fiber to the premises. Speed tiers use the speed_25_3, speed_100_20, and speed_1000_100 columns, which refer to maximum advertised download/upload speeds. Units with fiber are that percentage times total_units. Urban, rural, and Tribal shares use the file’s area_data_type values. Overlap figures (both, cable only, fiber only) are derived from the “Cable/Fiber”, “Cable”, and “Fiber” rows of the same file. Provider footprints sum unit_count_res for technology code 50 (fiber to the premises) by FCC provider ID.
Coverage. The state ranking covers the 50 states and DC. Territories are in the CSV but not ranked.
Limitations. Availability covers locations where a provider reports it has built its network and can perform a standard broadband installation (47 CFR 1.7004). It is not subscriptions or measured speeds. It can be challenged and is revised between file revisions. The location fabric is updated each filing, so total units change between releases (they fell by 2.4 million between June and December 2025). Shares are of residential units, which count each apartment, so they are not identical to households or to the number of locations. Industry counts of “homes passed” by fiber use different definitions and are not comparable.
Not advice. This is an analysis of public availability data, not a recommendation of any provider.
Cite as:The Uptime Report. "Fiber Internet Availability by State 2026: 55.9% of US Homes Can Now Get Fiber, and Rural Fiber Has Overtaken Cable." October 2026. https://theuptimereport.com/fiber-internet-availability-by-state/
References
- FCC National Broadband Map, nationwide data downloads (fixed broadband summary by geography and fixed broadband provider summary, four filings). Accessed October 2026.
- FCC, Specifications for Data Downloads from the National Broadband Map (August 11, 2026). Accessed October 2026.
- FCC BDC Help Center, How to Use the FCC’s National Broadband Map. Accessed October 2026.
- FCC BDC Help Center, How to Submit an Availability Challenge. Accessed October 2026.
- 47 CFR 1.7004, Scope, content, and frequency of Broadband Data Collection filings. Accessed October 2026.
- 47 CFR 1.7006, Data verification (fixed service challenge process). Accessed October 2026.
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