A new speed analysis published by Ookla finds that municipal broadband providers consistently leave their private Internet service provider (ISP) competition in the dust.

“Small Towns, Big Speeds: How Some Municipal Broadband Providers Outperform Their ISP Peers” examined speed test data that included some of the largest municipal networks in the U.S. from December 2024 through December 2025 and compared their performance to each other and to their privately-owned ISP competitors.

Though it wasn’t in-depth study on other aspects of performance (or business models) – but a more narrowly-focused comparison of speed among 14 municipal providers – still the analysis shines a light on a leading performance indicator: “eight municipal providers in the U.S. that we monitored using Ookla Speedtest data beat their broadband competitors in median upload speeds and one municipal provider, Sherwood Broadband, outpaced the competition in median download speeds.”

Here are some of the report’s topline takeaways:

• Fort Collins, Colorado’s Connexion was the leader in median upload speed, delivering an average median upload speed of more than 300 (Megabits per second) Mbps for the entire 13-month period from December 2024 to December 2025.
• Sherwood Broadband in Sherwood, Oregon, was the top provider in median download speeds, delivering an average median download speed that surpassed 400 Mbps eight months out of a 13-month period from December 2024 to December 2025.
• UTOPIA Fiber in Utah is a standout in latency, delivering the lowest latency of all 14 municipal broadband providers with a multi-server latency consistently in the low 6 milliseconds (ms) to 8 ms range.

The Problem With 'Unfair Competition'

Broadband ISPs should be held to a higher public interest standard and regulated like traditional utilities in California, a new joint study by nonprofit state policy news outlet Cal Matters and UC Berkeley’s Possibility Lab argues. State governments should also vocally support community broadband networks as a direct challenge to monopoly power, the authors state.

The study specifically looked at the broadband sector in California, where 15 percent of California households – predominately in low income and minority communities – lack broadband access. It concludes that dramatic federal and state policy failures have resulted in unchecked monopolies and muted competition that directly harms the public interest.

While the study lauds California’s dramatic $6 billion “Broadband For All” initiative, which is driving historic new investment into last and middle mile network upgrades, it also states that the state’s full vision for equitable access cannot be achieved without rate controls, universal access requirements, and strict reliability standards for large incumbent ISPs.

The study also urges state leaders to aggressively embrace municipal broadband cooperatives to address regionalized market failure and improve overall accountability.

“California should actively encourage and support the formation of municipal broadband
cooperatives across the state, particularly in underserved rural and suburban communities
where incumbent providers have failed to deliver adequate service,” the study observes.

Monopoly Dysfunction, Muted Competition

Like most U.S. states, California communities are dominated by a handful of cable and phone giants that have leveraged their immense political power to box out local competition creating dominant regional monopolies and duopolies.

Fifteen years ago, Western Massachusetts residents in the small hill towns that dotted the most rural parts of the state were faced with an increasingly stark choice. To stay where they and their family had always lived, they had to accept that they would always have second-class broadband service. The full breadth and depth of the Internet would probably be inaccessible to them, because the monopoly Internet Service Providers (ISPs) decided that even though there was profit to be had in the region, it wasn't enough to upgrade or expand those networks. Or, residents could move east, where new investment was happening but where they would have to start over. 

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Instead, they charted a third path. Over the course of a decade, towns came together, building a grassroots movement. Leading the charge was a cadre of champions that drove thousands of miles, held hundreds of meetings, and inspired dozens of voting campaigns to partner together and build their own broadband networks. Such was the weight of their determination that the state's will was bent their way. Between 2018 and 2022, 19 very small towns built fiber-to-the-home (ftth) networks and transformed their telecommunications future forever. And the special nature of that change comes in no small part because of the public partnerships that have been established, both among themselves and with neighboring community Westfield - itself a municipal provider who today operates these new networks on behalf of the communities. 

As digital equity advocates push Congress to replenish the rapidly diminishing funds that support the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a recently published report should help bolster the case that the program – which subsidizes the cost of monthly Internet service for income-eligible households – won’t just help more Americans get broadband access, it can also incent Internet service providers (ISPs) to make infrastructure investments in unserved and underserved areas.

The report, titled "Closing the Digital Divide Benefits Everyone, Not Just the Disconnected" – published by Common Sense and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) – emphasizes the benefits of universal Internet access across education, health care, government services, and employment. It makes the case that universal connectivity would allow institutions to “integrate Internet-based technologies into their services, improving them for the benefit of all.”

Most notably, the report advocates for increased ACP enrollment, arguing that in addition to providing low-income households some short-term relief from pricey Internet bills, the program can provide an economic incentive for ISPs to invest in unserved and underserved communities by increasing the return on investment (ROI) in areas that have previously been considered unprofitable.

The Affordable Connectivity Program has been considered by some to be a “coupon” solution to the broadband affordability problem, and ILSR has long believed that while the ACP is critical to ensuring low-income customers can afford Internet access right now, more structural solutions are needed to make connectivity affordable to everyone over the long term.

In partnership with the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative (SRBWI), today ILSR is releasing a new report that examines the link between high-speed Internet infrastructure, access to healthcare, and the economic implications involved.

The report – “Increased Wellness and Economic Return of Universal Broadband Infrastructure: A Telehealth Case Study of Ten Southern Rural Counties” – has particular relevance for those living in rural broadband deserts as it details how universal, affordable, broadband infrastructure would return $43 million per year using telehealth across 10 counties in the Black Belt of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.

At a virtual press briefing today, SRBWI leaders and organizers were joined by Dr. Sandra B. Reed of Emory Healthcare; as well as ILSR Senior Researcher and the report’s lead author, Ry Marcattilio, to explain how robust broadband infrastructure could pay for itself in short order and open up untold access to healthcare, educational opportunities, economic development, community engagement, and other benefits along the way.

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“It’s easy to miss the connection, but hard to overlook what’s at stake as rural hospitals close and the cost of transportation to get to far-off healthcare facilities presents a real barrier. This is about access to healthcare and Black women being denied the opportunity to take advantage of telehealth. The broadband infrastructure that’s needed for that just isn’t there,” said Shirley Sherrod, SRBWI State Lead for Georgia and Director of the Southwest Georgia Project in Albany Georgia.

Broadband … to Access Longer, Healthier Lives