In March, the FCC approved raising the national broadband speed benchmark to 100 Mbps for download speeds and 20 Mbps for upload. According to a new 50 U.S. States Broadband Speed Performance report from Ookla, only 22 states are meeting that minimum.
In data collected between July and December 2024, Ookla found that the number of states with 60% or more users with internet speeds above the FCC minimum standard increased from nine states in the first half of 2024 to 22 states by the end of 2024.
New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, North Dakota, and Maryland have the highest percentage of users with 100/20 Mbps speeds. Montana and Alaska are at the bottom of the list, and have fewer than 40% of Speedtest users receiving the minimum broadband speeds of 100/20 Mbps.
Previously, the minimum was set at 25 megabits per second and upload speeds of 3 megabits per second. In a statement in March 2024, Former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel focused on the need for improved internet speeds, especially in rural and underserved communities, noting that the pandemic made the issue of access to reliable internet more apparent.
While the number of states meeting the new standards increased from the first half of the year to the second, the changes haven’t helped to close the digital divide. According to the Ookla report, 32 states saw their digital divide grow during this time period, including Washington, Oregon, and Illinois. The report attributes that, at least in part, to the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which brought affordable internet to 23 million low-income households before the FCC ended the program in 2024.
The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, a federal program to expand high-speed internet across the country, is currently under review by the administration. Despite that, Ookla says “we expect to see more developments in broadband coverage throughout 2025.”