> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Fixed Wireless Faster in Urban Areas: Ookla - URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/fixed-wireless-faster-in-urban-areas-ookla/ - Published: 2026-08-26T18:55:57.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-15T21:47:19.000Z - Description: T-Mobile posted the fastest fixed wireless speeds of the three national carriers - Author: Jake Neenan - Tags: Broadband Mapping and Data, Ookla, Sue Marek, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, #with-siderail, New York, Hawaii, FCC, Brendan Carr, Echostar WASHINGTON, Aug. 26, 2026 – Urban subscribers to fixed wireless broadband service are seeing faster speeds and lower latency than their rural counterparts, Ookla found in [a new analysis](https://www.ookla.com/articles/u-s-fwa-rural-urban-1h-2026?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com). The research company looked at speed test data from all three national carriers in the first and second quarters of 2026, and found the subscribers on each experienced higher median download speeds in urban areas. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/29/97/29976d9d-89ea-4c77-8c0b-0e8a0eafed35/content/images/2026/08/urban-vs-rural-median-do.png) Chart from Ookla [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/29/97/29976d9d-89ea-4c77-8c0b-0e8a0eafed35/content/images/2026/08/250150_course_graphic_YT_wordmark_title-1.png)](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/course/#bbb-offer) [***Sign Up for FREE for Section A**](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/course/#bbb-offer) [Sign Up for FREE for Section A ](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/course/#bbb-offer) The difference was most pronounced at Verizon, with nearly 50 percent higher median speeds in rural areas in the second quarter. The figure was more than 31 percent at AT&T and nearly 13 percent at T-mobile. The urban advantage, as Ookla editorial director **Sue Marek** called it, was also observed in latency and upload speeds, except for at AT&T. In rural areas AT&T actually had higher upload speeds. Fixed wireless was initially envisioned as a cheap means of deploying rural broadband, Marek wrote, but appeared to be gaining popularity in the urban areas where its speed is performing better. She noted that about 70 percent of Ookla’s speed tests on the technology came from urban areas, which doesn’t directly correlate with subscriber counts but “can act as a proxy for overall market distribution.” “The technology shines in dense urban areas where short signal distances between close-together small cells and cell towers maximize performance,” Marek wrote. “In addition, FWA is much easier to deploy and eliminates the headaches associated with urban fiber deployment such as costly trenching, expensive municipal permits, and heavy construction fees.” While the top 10 percent of speed tests showed quite fast download speeds, from 300 megabits per second (Mbps) at Verizon to more than 600 Mbps at times with T-Mobile, that experience wasn’t universal. Ookla found that in almost every state, fewer than 40 percent of speed tests reached 100 \* 20 Mbps, the federal standard for high-speed broadband. New York and Hawaii were the only exceptions, at 45 percent and 48 percent respectively. ### *T-Mobile took top spot* T-Mobile’s fixed wireless service posted the fastest median download speed of the carriers in the second quarter, hitting nearly 223 Mbps compared to AT&T’s 160 Mbps and Verizon’s 127 Mbps. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/29/97/29976d9d-89ea-4c77-8c0b-0e8a0eafed35/content/images/2026/08/us-5g-fwa-customer-media.png) Chart from Ookla All three providers saw their speeds decrease from the first quarter of 2026 to the second, which Ookla attributed to trees and plants coming back into bloom and disrupting signals with their leaves. In Ookla’s December report on fixed wireless, “we noted that the declines may also be a result of network congestion, but it’s evident that this is an ongoing pattern as it impacts all three FWA providers,” Marek wrote. AT&T saw a big speed increase from the third quarter of 2025, though, a boost of nearly 60 percent. That’s likely due to the 3.45 GigaHertz (GHz) spectrum it purchased from EchoStar last year. The deal closed in July 2026, but the carrier had been leasing the spectrum since the deal was announced. AT&T [said in November](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/at-t-touts-echostar-spectrum-deployment/) of last year the extra airwaves had boosted its fixed wireless speeds by 55 percent in some places. In EchoStar’s telling, that sale [was forced](https://document.epiq11.com/document/getdocumentbycode?docId=4588844&projectCode=PNY&source=DM) by FCC Chairman **Brendan Carr**, who the company says threatened to revoke its licenses if it didn’t sell them to companies he thought would put them to better use. [Verizon purchased](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/verizon-closes-starry-acquisition/) urban fixed wireless provider Starry earlier this year, but that wasn’t included in Ookla’s analysis since the service is still operated separately from Verizon’s. It appeared that Verizon was capping its fixed wireless service at about 300 Mbps, Marek wrote. Fixed wireless is a part of AT&T and Verizon’s plans to bundle fixed and mobile broadband and thus reduce the likelihood customers will switch. T-Mobile has [emphasized that less](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/t-mobile-broadband-adds-in-the-upper-400-000-range/) despite counting the most fixed wireless subscribers before it stopped reporting subscribers last year. The three carriers each count millions of subscribers on the service.