The FCC released its annual Section 706 report on August 14 that describes the U.S. broadband industry as of June 30, 2025. This report is created to fulfill a mandate that the FCC should update Congress once a year on the state of broadband. As seems to be the norm for these reports, they seem to take over a year to compile and publish. The data supporting this report comes from the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) process where ISPs and carriers report speed and location data to the FCC twice each year.
One of the findings of the report is that broadband coverage is growing. That’s not hard to believe. I’ve been following and reading reports of broadband projects all over the country, much of the rural builds supported by various state and federal grants and urban builds being funded by carriers and venture capital money. I’m a bit dubious of the statement that 96.9% of Americans have access to a terrestrial ISP that can deliver speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps. I’ve written many times about the exaggerations and inaccuracies in ISP reporting in the data collection process. I still think there are ISPs reporting exactly 100/20 Mbps speed capability to the FCC while delivering something slower.
Another major finding is that the digital divide is rapidly shrinking in rural America. The report says that the number of rural locations without access to 100/20 Mbps shrank by 23% from 2024 to 2025. It adds that 100/20 Mbps satellite broadband is available to almost everybody. I take exception to this claim. This is really another way of reporting on broadband coverage. Looking at the digital divide means looking at who is buying broadband, not who has the opportunity to buy. The big question that the FCC constantly ducks is affordability. There was a recent hearing in the Pennsylvania House where witnesses told the legislators that the OBBB and affordability could mean a loss of 233,000 broadband customers in Pennsylvania in 2027 due to affordability issues.
Another big claim is that there is widely available 5G. The report claims that 95% of Americans are covered with 5G that can deliver speeds of 35/3 Mbps. It says that the number of households without 5G access decreased by 30% over a two-year period. To be fair to the FCC, it is only reporting what the carriers report to it, but these claims are hard to accept. Anybody who has spent time studying the cellular coverage maps will quickly see a lot of exaggerated coverage outside of cities. Another issue with looking at June 30, 2025 data is that there were a lot of locations in the FCC database where the only fast provider was EchoStar, which shut down the cellular business earlier this year.
The other major claim is that Americans have more competitive options than ever before. The report says that 77% of households have access to at least three ISPs that can deliver speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps when including satellite in that measurement. The problem with this is that Starlink is not able or willing to serve many folks in urban areas, so while this claim is probably true based on reporting, it’s not true in the real world. A more realistic statistic is that 43.4% of households have access to three or more ISPs that can deliver 100/10 Mbps. That would mean broadband from a fiber ISP, a cable company, a FWA provider, or a WISP. While I’m positive the number is a bit inflated, a lot of people in cities have access to three ISPs out of that list.
There were other topics reported to Congress in the report. For example, the report says that cellular data speeds are increasing. The report talks about the phase-out of copper technology. The FCC touted successes in the marketplace due to its spectrum policies.
There was an interesting change in the report. The FCC dropped the long-term goal that the country should be striving to reach a future speed of at least 1 gig upload and 500 Mbps download. That goal was adopted by the FCC under Chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel. ISPs other than fiber providers hated that goal, although cable companies are on an upgrade path to largely meet that goal. But that goal was anathema to the satellite, cellular, and fixed wireless ISPs.
This article highlights a major problem with the FCC’s mobile broadband maps: they are largely built on carrier-reported coverage, which does not always reflect what people actually experience on rural roads, in small communities, and other hard-to-serve areas. YOWIEPatrol.org helps communities add something critically important to that picture—real-world, location-based mobile connectivity data collected by the people who live, work, travel, and respond to emergencies there. Using YOWIE Patrol’s free mobile Speed Check, residents can document areas with poor service as well as places where usable mobile broadband simply does not exist.
Communities can partner with YOWIEPatrol.org to organize local testing campaigns, engage residents and public safety personnel, and turn individual tests into maps that clearly identify connectivity gaps. That kind of community-driven, ground-truth data can help challenge overly optimistic coverage claims, inform decisions about new towers and infrastructure, and give local and state leaders better evidence when advocating for investment. If we want more accurate mobile broadband maps, we need to complement what carriers say is covered with data showing what people actually experience on the ground. That is exactly the gap YOWIE Patrol is working to fill. Learn more at https://yowiepatrol.org/ and how to partner with YOWIE Patrol.