NTCA Members Deliver Fiber to Rural Schools, Libraries, and Hospitals
Survey of NTCA members finds nearly nine in 10 schools, libraries, and hospitals are served by fiber.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2025 – Rural broadband providers represented by NTCA are now delivering fiber to nearly nine in 10 of the locations they serve, according to the association’s 2025 Broadband/Internet Availability Survey.
The survey, which has been conducted for more than 20 years, tracks trends in broadband deployment, adoption, and technology among NTCA’s approximately 850 community-based members across 44 states. This year’s survey, conducted in partnership with Industry Insights, Inc., collected responses from 201 company members.
Anchor institutions benefitted from fiber deployment, too. More than nine in 10 public libraries and hospitals served by the surveyed NTCA members are now connected via fiber, along with 91 percent of 911 call centers and nearly 90 percent of primary and secondary schools.
Broadband availability and speeds for these institutions have risen steadily, with maximum speeds available reaching an average of 3,144 Mbps and average purchased speeds climbing to 740 Mbps in 2025.
Consumer adoption of faster broadband has steadily increased, as well. Among NTCA members who responded to the 2025 survey, approximately 75 percent of customers now subscribe to speeds of 100 Mbps or greater, up from 67 percent in 2024.
Most popular speed tier is between 100 Mbps-1 Gbps
The most popular tier is speeds between 100 Mbps and 1 Gigabit, which accounts for 59.6 percent of subscriptions, up from 55.3 percent last year. Nearly 94 percent of customers subscribe to speeds of 25 Mbps or greater, up from 80 percent in 2022 and 50 percent in 2019.
Despite these gains, providers still face barriers to deployment. The cost of fiber installation remains the most significant challenge, cited by 85 percent of respondents, followed by longer distances to customer premises and regulatory uncertainty.
Providers reported permitting delays, inflationary pressures, and supply chain issues, particularly for fiber and network components, continue to slow expansion in some areas.
NTCA members also reported challenges with the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband Data Collection process, which is used to inform the National Broadband Map. Members estimate that the map is about 82.8 percent accurate, highlighting the ongoing need for updates and corrections.
Most respondents reported filing relatively few challenges since the creation of the map: 85 percent submitted 100 or fewer disputes over another provider’s claimed availability for wired technologies, like fiber, coaxial, or copper.
For terrestrial wireless technologies, 82 percent of respondents filed 100 or fewer challenges since the map’s inception, though a slightly higher share of 7.4 percent reported having filed more than 1,000 challenges.
In the most recent BDC cycle, over 90 percent of respondents challenged between zero to 25 locations. Companies averaged 168 availability challenges in 2024, requiring 83 staff hours, approximately 18 hours per challenge, and $5,987 in outside support.
Respondents to the survey, conducted in partnership with Industry Insights, Inc., reported an average of 5,988 residential and 575 business broadband connections, with service areas averaging 2,448 square miles. Nearly four in 10 providers operate in areas smaller than 500 square miles, while roughly a quarter cover more than 2,000 square miles.
Member discussion