U.S. FWA Was Envisioned as a Rural Broadband Fix, but Urban Users Are Embracing It Too

U.S. 5G fixed wireless access connections from Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T topped 17 million in Q1 2026—capturing 13.74% of the nation’s 123.75 million home broadband subscriptions, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s January 2026 American Community Survey. Ookla looked at FWA performance trends throughout the first half of 2026 and found steady progress in speeds and latency. Key takeaways include:

• T-Mobile dominated its competitors in Q2 2026 with a median download speed of 222.7 Mbps, 38.4% higher than AT&T Internet Air and 76% higher than Verizon 5G Home. Similarly, T-Mobile’s Q2 2026 median upload speed of 18.1 Mbps was 80.1% higher than AT&T and 48.5% higher than Verizon. 
• All three providers experienced a performance drop in both download and upload speeds between Q1 2026 to Q2 2026, which is likely due to the seasonal impact of foliage —dense leaves on trees can weaken FWA signals.
• Rural FWA users across all three providers nationwide have lower median download speeds and higher multi-server latency than urban FWA users.  Speedtest data indicates that urban users receive a median multi-server latency anywhere from 7 ms to 13 ms lower than their rural counterparts.