Ookla: "Broadband" Availability Expanding Rapidly

According to an Ookla report (registration required) released on October 27, the availability of high-speed Internet access that satisfies the FCC's definition of "broadband" grew dramatically during the first half of this year.

Ookla, which operates the Speedtest® website, reported that the number of states in which most of its users enjoy speeds that meet or exceed the minimum benchmarks established by the FCC – 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream – nearly doubled between January and June of 2025. It also found that parity between urban and rural areas increased substantially during that time.

Specifically, Ookla's testing data revealed that the number of states in which at least 60 percent of users have access to "broadband" jumped from 23 (including the District of Columbia) as of year-end 2024 to 39 by the end of June 2025. In five of those states – Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Rhode Island –over 70 percent of its users receive "broadband."

In only three largely rural states do less than half of Speedtest® users report "broadband" service: Wyoming (48.26 percent), Montana (41.09 percent), and Alaska (38.42 percent).

In addition, the gap between the speeds provided to urban and rural users narrowed in 33 states during the first six months of this year – nearly double the number of states (17) in which that disparity increased.