- 8 of 14 municipal ISPs outperformed competitors in median upload speeds, said Ookla
- Cable ISPs often match municipal networks on download speeds but continue to lag in upload performance, though DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades are narrowing the gap
- Municipal ISPs still trail major fiber providers like AT&T Fiber and GFiber in both download and upload metrics
Some of the largest U.S. municipal broadband operators are outperforming cable incumbents on upload speeds, according to a new Ookla report, but performance typically lags compared to private fiber competitors.
Per a Speedtest analysis of 14 municipal broadband providers between December 2024 and December 2025, eight overtook their competitors in median upload speeds.
Top performers include Connexion in Colorado, which delivered an average median upload speed of more than 300 Mbps in the 13-month period, Pulse Fiber (also in Colorado) that achieved over 300 Mbps uplink for 10 months and Oregon-based Sherwood Broadband, which reached that threshold for eight of the 13 months.
All three compete with Comcast’s Xfinity, whose median uplink is only in double digits with speeds that typically range between 20-45 Mbps. In Georgia, municipal provider OptiLink clocked median upload speeds of about 231-252 Mbps in the 13-month period, much higher than Spectrum’s low-to-mid 20 Mbps range.
Ookla chose to spotlight only 14 providers because they had the highest reported subscriber numbers and thus the company had the most Speedtest samples. All told, there are currently at least 400 U.S. municipal networks serving more than 700 communities, per Institute of Local Self Reliance (ILSR) data.
Cable upload speeds still lag amid DOCSIS 4.0 rollouts
“Many of these municipal broadband providers are competing with cable providers in their markets – and while the cable providers can often match or surpass the municipal broadband providers in download speeds, they can’t match them in upload speeds,” Sue Marek, Ookla editorial director and author of the report, told Fierce.
That being said, Comcast, Charter and other cable companies are undertaking distributed access architecture (DAA) upgrades to improve their upload speeds. Comcast increased its median uplink from 44.98 Mbps in December 2024 to 79.83 Mbps in December 2025 in Loveland, Colorado – one of the operator’s DOCSIS 4.0 markets.
Charter still hasn’t commercially turned up DOCSIS 4.0 service, however CEO Chris Winfrey last month said the company now has symmetrical and multi-gig speeds in about 15% of its footprint and expects to complete remaining upgrade work in 2027.
Municipal performance still falls short vs. major fiber ISPs
Marek noted that while many municipal networks are built from the ground up so they aren’t dealing with legacy copper phone lines and coaxial cable, both their download and upload speeds often fall short in markets where there’s another fiber provider.
For example, Louisiana’s LFT Fiber posted median downlink and uplink of 112.90 Mbps and 107.70 Mbps, respectively, as of December 2025. Its largest competitor is AT&T Fiber, which logged a median download of 473.80 Mbps and a 424.17 Mbps uplink. AT&T recently announced a multi-year $250 billion investment to expand fiber, 5G and satellite connectivity.
Meanwhile Utopia Fiber, which has a significant market presence in Utah, faces stiff competition from Gfiber, which “outperforms Utopia across all metrics,” Marek said, referring to download and upload speeds as well as latency.
GFiber, which considers itself a trailblazer in 20-gig service, recorded a median download speed of 485.02 Mbps in December compared to Utopia’s average of 264.57 Mbps.
“However, UTOPIA does maintain consistent median upload and download speeds despite having numerous ISP partners on its network,” Marek said.
On the latency side, Ookla noted Utopia delivered consistent multi-server latency between 6-8 milliseconds – the lowest of all 14 municipal ISPs the company analyzed.