Key findings
- 4,612 ZIP codes (14.7% of the US) have one or zero wired broadband providers — 4,070 have exactly one, and 542 have none at all.
- 5G home internet reaches 3,982 of those 4,612 ZIPs (86.3%) — fixed wireless, not fiber or cable, is now the only source of competition in most of America’s single-provider broadband markets.
- Fiber reaches 27,013 ZIP codes (86.0%), but distribution is extremely uneven: from 100% of Connecticut’s ZIP codes down to 36.7% of Alaska’s.
- California has more single-provider ZIP codes (303) than any other state, and ranks 7th-worst nationally for fiber ZIP coverage at 73.6%.
Where wired competition does not exist
Counting distinct parent companies offering wired service (fiber, cable, or DSL) in each ZIP code — so a brand and its fiber sub-brand count once — produces this distribution.
| Wired providers in ZIP | ZIP codes | Share of US |
|---|---|---|
| None | 542 | 1.7% |
| Exactly one (monopoly) | 4,070 | 13.0% |
| Two | 8,612 | 27.4% |
| Three | 8,227 | 26.2% |
| Four or more | 9,958 | 31.7% |
The states with the most single-provider or no-provider ZIP codes are California (303), Texas (268), Pennsylvania (266), New York (223), and Montana (194). Measured as a share of each state, Alaska is the least competitive state in the country: 179 of its 237 ZIP codes (75.5%) have one wired provider or none.
5G home internet is filling the competition gap
The most consequential finding is what has arrived in those markets. Of the 4,612 ZIP codes with one wired provider or none, 3,982 (86.3%) now have at least one 5G home internet service on file with the FCC.
For most American households with no meaningful wired choice, the competitive alternative in 2026 is therefore not a second cable company or a fiber overbuild — it is fixed wireless delivered over a mobile network. That is a structural change in how broadband competition reaches rural and single-provider markets, and most of it has happened within the last three years.
The fiber gap by state
Fiber is filed in 86.0% of US ZIP codes nationally, but state-level coverage spans more than 63 percentage points.
| Least fiber coverage | % of ZIPs | Most fiber coverage | % of ZIPs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | 36.7% | Connecticut | 100.0% |
| West Virginia | 66.8% | North Dakota | 99.2% |
| Wyoming | 69.6% | Tennessee | 98.7% |
| Arizona | 70.1% | South Dakota | 98.6% |
| New Mexico | 70.3% | South Carolina | 97.7% |
| Idaho | 72.7% | Rhode Island | 97.1% |
| California | 73.6% | Georgia | 96.9% |
California’s position is the most counterintuitive result in the dataset: the state hosting the American technology industry ranks seventh-worst in the country for the share of its ZIP codes with any fiber provider on file, and leads the nation in single-provider ZIP codes.
Methodology
Source data is the FCC Broadband Data Collection (December 2024 filing vintage), the federal government’s official record of where providers report offering service, published at broadbandmap.fcc.gov. Provider filings were joined to the Census 2020 ZCTA-to-block crosswalk to produce ZIP-code-level coverage.
The analysis covers 342,028 residential service records across 31,409 ZIP codes and 51 states and territories. “Wired” means fiber, cable, or DSL. Competition is counted by distinct parent company rather than brand, so a cable operator and its fiber sub-brand count once — a deliberately conservative measure that understates rather than overstates monopoly conditions. Satellite is excluded from competition counts because it is available nationwide and does not vary by market. All figures describe reported availability at ZIP level; service at an individual address can differ, which is the well-documented limitation of provider-reported federal data.
Citation and data access
This analysis may be quoted or cited with attribution to Ziatan (ziatan.com). Suggested citation: “Ziatan analysis of FCC Broadband Data Collection (December 2024), 2026.”
Journalists, researchers, and state broadband offices can request the underlying state-level or ZIP-level tables, or additional cuts of the data, by calling (833) 261-0564. Per-city and per-ZIP coverage detail for every market in the dataset is published at ziatan.com/internet-providers/.
Frequently asked questions
How many US ZIP codes have only one internet provider?
4,612 US ZIP codes — 14.7% of the country — have one wired broadband provider or none, according to Ziatan’s analysis of the FCC Broadband Data Collection (December 2024). Of those, 4,070 have exactly one wired provider and 542 have no wired provider at all.
Is 5G home internet replacing wired competition?
In single-provider markets it largely has. Of the 4,612 ZIP codes with one wired provider or none, 3,982 (86.3%) now have 5G home internet available. For most American households without a wired choice, fixed wireless is the competitive alternative rather than a second cable or fiber network.
Which state has the least fiber internet?
Alaska, where fiber is filed in just 36.7% of ZIP codes, followed by West Virginia (66.8%), Wyoming (69.6%), Arizona (70.1%), and New Mexico (70.3%). Connecticut leads the country at 100% of ZIP codes with fiber availability on file.
Coverage data: FCC Broadband Data Collection — broadbandmap.fcc.gov. Pricing is indicative, varies by address, and changes often — confirm current offers with the provider or call (833) 261-0564.