November 19, 2024 by Joe Ross
On Friday, November 15, 2024, the FCC released the fifth version of the National Broadband Map representing broadband service nationwide as of June 30, 2024. It’s clear that ISPs were very busy between the end of 2023 and mid-2024. Nearly 1.3 million more locations have speeds at 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload or higher, an increase of 1.2 percent. An impressive 6.1 million more locations now have competition at that service level or higher – up 8.9 percent from the end of 2023. What’s clear is that most of this comes from wireless which now serves 6.6 million more locations than at the beginning of 2024 (over 81 million total locations), also up just under 9 percent. Cable and fiber competition also increased dramatically with nearly 2.6 million more locations with two or more providers for those technologies – up over 5 percent. This comes from the growth in fiber which in the first half of 2024 served over 3.4 million more locations, while cable served fewer locations in mid-2024 than at the beginning of the year. In fact, given the substantial increase in cable/fiber competition and not in cable/fiber service, it’s clear that the additional fiber service is primarily competing with cable based broadband service. This is all good news for U.S. consumers who saw competition at 5 percent more serviceable locations, and with nearly half of that competition coming from fiber. The figure below provides the highlights followed by a table with detailed location counts.
Locations and Change from Dec. 2023 to Jun. 2024
I’ll provide a summary of changes from the individual providers, including details about individual wireless providers and their impressive adds tomorrow. Take a look at our nationwide report that provides details on providers, competition, and service levels or request a free report for a state, territory, or county here.