US State Broadband Rankings Split on Speed Versus Affordability

Median download speeds across US states rose 25% in a year to an average of 133.7 Mbps, yet two major state rankings released this week tell sharply different stories about where American broadband actually stands.

Tyler Cooper, editor in chief of comparison and research group BroadbandNow, presented the findings Wednesday at a Broadband Breakfast Live Online session on the best and worst states for broadband. Median download speeds now reach at least 100 Mbps in 48 of 51 jurisdictions, including Washington, D.C. — up from 31 jurisdictions a year earlier.

A separate analysis by measurement firm Ookla tracked similar progress but ranked the states differently, because it asked a different question: what share of tested rural and urban users meets the federal benchmark of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, set by the FCC in 2024.

What separates the two methodologies?

BroadbandNow's scoring gives 35% of the weight to wired service availability and 30% to access to plans costing $60 a month or less. Download speed, upload speed and latency — the round-trip time data takes from device to server — each count for 10%. Fiber availability makes up the remaining 5%.

That affordability weighting matters. Mid-Atlantic and New England states took the top four spots, led by New Jersey at 97.4 out of 100, where plans of $60 or less reach 98.4% of households. Maryland, Connecticut and Massachusetts followed.

Alaska finished last for at least the fourth consecutive year. Wired or fixed wireless service reaches 76.7% of its households, but plans at $60 or less reach just 0.1% — effectively nobody. Its median download speed of 49.6 Mbps is the country's slowest.

The methodological gap shows in individual states. North Dakota and Tennessee both placed in Ookla's top 10, yet ranked 26th and 33rd respectively on BroadbandNow's list; sub-$60 plans reach only 68.5% of North Dakota households.

Fiber is no guarantee either. Kansas and Hawaii each have fiber available to 74.6% of households, yet both sit in BroadbandNow's bottom five. Kansas recorded the second-slowest median download speed at 58.4 Mbps, while Hawaii posted the highest latency at 98.8 milliseconds.

The measures capture different aspects of broadband and should be read together, said Paroma Sanyal, a principal at economic consulting firm Brattle Group and former chief economist in the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Understanding the differences, she said, helps policymakers identify the appropriate intervention.

Does competition move prices and speeds?

Areas with more competing providers show greater access to low-cost plans, Cooper said. "What we see in areas that have more competition is we see higher access to low-cost broadband."

Sanyal added that competition also pushes providers to offer faster speeds, and suggested the industry's long-anticipated "convergence" among fiber, cable, fixed wireless and satellite services might finally be emerging.

South Carolina illustrates how rankings diverge. It fell further than any other state on BroadbandNow's list, from 20th to 40th, with a median upload speed of 18.6 Mbps and latency of 31.8 milliseconds — though Cooper noted scores were tightly bunched, so small differences move states several places. In Ookla's data, South Carolina was the only state where a slightly larger share of rural than urban tested users met the benchmark, said Sue Marek, Ookla's editorial director. She credited sustained efforts to connect rural hospitals and schools, citing Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.

Is the rural gap closing?

The rural–urban gap in meeting the benchmark narrowed in every state except California, Delaware and Illinois, Ookla found. Substantial differences persisted in Washington state, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon and Missouri. Marek pointed to mountains, forests and sparse populations driving up construction costs, and to income differences within New Mexico and Missouri.

Starlink, SpaceX's satellite service, showed little rural–urban divide. The share of its tested users meeting the benchmark more than doubled, from 18.9% to 40%, with Marek attributing most of the gain to faster uploads as SpaceX launched more and newer satellites. Alaska remained an outlier at 24.6%, which Marek linked to satellite paths and ground-station placement.

BroadbandNow excluded satellite but recorded average state fiber availability rising from 49.7% to 56.6% of households. Both technologies will expand under the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program created by the 2021 infrastructure law: approved state plans assign roughly 22% of locations to satellite and 63% to fiber, setting the stage for the affordability picture — and the rankings — to shift again as construction proceeds.