In this report, the second of a two-part series on the U.S. fixed broadband experience, we break down the experience of customers on major operators in each of the 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs).

In the U.S. broadband industry, a series of major consolidations and strategic shifts loom on the horizon — AT&T’s acquisition of Lumen’s consumer fiber assets, Verizon’s planned merger with Frontier and Charter’s merger with Cox — signal a reshaping of the competitive landscape. Yet despite these impending changes, this latest look at fixed broadband performance confirms that some core themes remain firmly in place.

Where fiber is available, it continues to rank higher compared to other technologies. Across nearly every MSA examined in this report, at least one of the top-ranked ISPs for Download Speed, Upload Speed, Reliability Experience, Broadband Consistent Quality or Video Experience is a fiber provider. Whether it's national players like AT&T or Verizon, or regional providers like altafiber Fioptics and Ziply Fiber, the performance advantage of fiber to the premises (FTTP) is visible.

However, the race for fiber supremacy is far from settled. While ILECs maintain largely separate fiber footprints, competition comes from overbuilders like Google Fiber, Metronet and GoNetSpeed. Google Fiber has announced plans to enter the Las Vegas markets this year, while Bell Canada has acquired Ziply Fiber with an eye on the ‘underpenetrated’ opportunity of the US fiber market, and plans to expand its footprint to over 12 million locations by the end of 2028 – which implies Bell’s ambitions for Ziply extend beyond its incumbent telco service territory and into overbuilds of other telcos’ footprints.

As recently as this month, T-Mobile reaffirmed its ambitions in the fiber market following the acquisition of legacy ILEC Lumos, with the official launch of T-Mobile Fiber Home Internet. T-Mobile’s overbuilder ambitions will also be furthered if and when its joint venture to acquire Metronet closes as planned in 2025. The message is clear: even in fiber-strong markets, new entrants are betting on growth.

At the same time, cable ISPs are competitive in download speed and reliability in this report. Indeed, in markets like Minneapolis, we see Xfinity users experiencing average download speeds in excess of 200Mbps – beating second-placed Quantum Fiber. The challenge for cable ISPs is ensuring that upload speeds also keep pace. This can be achieved in a variety of ways; upgrading to FTTP is one, as is rolling out DOCSIS 3.1 and above. This paired together with investment into customer premises equipment (CPE) could equally challenge the fiber upload speeds seen in many MSAs in this report.

Infrastructure competition is already raising the bar. As more ISPs offer comparable service in overlapping or adjacent markets, ISPs looking to excel should keep a keen eye on how their performance compares, and what they can do to deliver the best consistent broadband experience to their subscribers.

Adding to this competition is Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), which is disrupting the regional fixed broadband landscape – particularly in terms of market share. By the end of 2024, nearly 12 million subscribers were using FWA services, with T-Mobile and Verizon leading the way. This subscriber base is expected to grow, with operator forecasts suggesting that there may be more than 20 million FWA users by 2028. While FWA providers’ award wins in this report are modest, their Consistent Quality scores and Video Experience scores approach or statistically tie those of wired competitors in a handful of markets.

FWA performance is also improving: T-Mobile's 5G Home Internet performance has improved in download speed in all 20 of the largest MSAs by at least 20Mbps and as much as 54Mbps in Atlanta and Miami since last year’s MSA deep dive. While there's still a gap between FWA and the performance Opensignal users experience on fiber operators, this does mean FWA often outperforms legacy DSL offerings. As time goes on, continued improvement in 5G network infrastructure will allow FWA to become an increasingly competitive offering in regions where fiber or high-speed cable are lacking, assuming that any growth in FWA subscribers' data consumption doesn't outstrip providers' expectations.

In this report we examine the fixed broadband experience across the 50 largest MSAs over a period of 90 days starting on February 1, 2025, and ending on May 1, 2025, to see how they fared.