Broadband by the Numbers: What the FCC's Latest Data Reveals About the U.S. Market

The FCC recently issued its latest Internet Access Services report for the period ending December 31, 2025. Total broadband subscribers of 563 million include 136.2 million fixed, a 1.7% increase year-over-year.  Mobile broadband subscribers reached 426.7 million, a 1.9 percent increase over the same period in 2024.

The FCC report provides great insight into the true state of broadband in the U.S. - including information regarding downstream/upstream speeds, availability, number of providers; coverage by broadband type, among other data.

Of the 136.2 million fixed broadband subscribers, 92% were residential - a number that has remained unchanged for the past decade. Distribution of broadband subscribers by type are shown below.

Some Key Highlights from the 2025 Report:

Coverage/Availability/Penetration

• Of the 130.6M households, fixed broadband was available to 116.5M or 89% of households

• Residential Household Broadband Penetration is 96.4% (of available households)

• FTTH is available to 62% of all households

• FTTH penetration at the end of 2025 was 31%

• There are currently 1,546 providers of FTTH; 262 providers of cable; 4 providers of satellite and 1,068 providers of Fixed Wireless in the U.S.

  
  

Speeds

• 35% of all broadband subscribers receive downstream speeds >940Mbps (essentially 1GB)

• The majority of broadband subscribers (50.2%) have downstream speeds between 100Mbps-940Mbps

• The majority of broadband subscribers (73%) have upstream speeds between 20Mbps-500Mbps

Speed Distribution by Broadband Type is shown below:

State Highlights:

• Texas has the most FTTH subscribers, followed by Florida, New York and California

• Mississippi, North Dakota and Iowa have the highest household penetration of FTTH

• The Top Broadband States (CA, TX, FL, NY, PA) represent 36% of total broadband lines

• States with broadband penetration below 90% include Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and Oklahoma

Overall Market Trends (2020-2025)

• DSL Subscriber lines have declined by 68%

• Coaxial Subscriber lines have declined by 6%

• FTTH and Satellite have more than doubled

• FWA has experienced the strongest growth at nearly 500%

Some overall thoughts

Although the FCC has updated and modified this report over time - it is in need of another refresh as it fails to capture the growing trends of multi-gigabit services. Other areas of further updates include the downstream and upstream segmentation - which feels out of date to the current service packages being offered by providers.

Telcos continue to lag Cable MSOs in terms of broadband subscriber market share, but the gap is closing as Telcos continue its push of FWA as another tool in its broadband toolbox to keep DSL subscribers from churing to alternative operators.

At the end of 2025, there still remained a considerable number of households - 14.1M that are unconnected. Furthermore, nearly 40% of households still do not have a FTTH option.

It was also notable in this report that broadband penetration of households in many states exceeded 100% - indicating that these households likely were using multiple broadband services - most likely FWA or Satellite.

While it will be a few years before these reports for accurately reflect BEAD impact, it will also be interesting to watch the impact of Satellite services over the next few years as well.