The US is covered in cable broadband

The US is a country is covered in cable broadband. More than 86% of the country has access to at least one cable or fiber broadband service according to Federal Communications Commission maps. Only 5% of locations among the 50 states and DC have access to three or more cable or fiber (I’ll call them wired) internet service providers (ISP). Thirty-two percent of locations have access to two wired offerings. And 49% have access to only one wired offering. Importantly, 13.5% of locations have access to zero wired offerings. That’s 14 million locations nationally without a cable or fiber ISPs that serves their location. This number is slightly different from the Unserved and Underserved locations that will be eligible for funding in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. It’s an unpopular opinion in my demographic, but I think the cable and fiber ISP filings are probably generally representative and fair at this point. After a full round of challenges, I think we’d know about serious over-reporting of coverage. And I believe most cable ISPs can provide 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload to the router, despite what speed tests may say. I’ve long argued that in many states there is enough money to reach all the Unserved and Underserved with fiber-to-the-home. One way we could fail to reach that goal is if we spend much more per location than we need to. Another way to is to include locations in grant programs that don’t legitimately need broadband upgrades. The money is limited, let’s choose only the locations that most need the upgrades.