Rural Customers Seeing Higher Broadband Speeds: NTCA
NTCA members “continued to lead the charge” in bringing high-speed internet to underserved parts of the U.S., the group said Monday as it released its 2025 Broadband/Internet Availability Survey Report. Despite serving "deeply rural areas," respondents said nearly 92% of their customers can receive downstream speeds of 100 Mbps or above, up from 89% in 2024, the report said. Nearly 79% of customers have access to gigabit downstream speeds, compared with 76% last year.
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Upload speeds, which are “important for critical user applications like video conferencing, remote work and online learning, continue to increase as well,” NTCA said. More than 89% of respondents’ customers saw upload speeds of 100 Mbps or higher, with 73% having access to Gbps upstream capability, it reported. “These investments are yielding benefits for rural Americans -- customers are eager to use higher speeds as they become available.” More than 75% of respondents’ customers subscribe to 100 Mbps downstream broadband or better, up from 67% in the 2024 report and 48% two years prior. For the fourth year in a row, the survey found that “subscriptions for 100 Mbps and higher speed downstream services are more popular than lower-speed offerings.”