Using data from the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS), released in September 2017 by the U.S. Census Bureau, NDIA ranked all 186 U.S. cities with more than 50,000 households by the total percentage of each city’s households lacking fixed broadband internet subscriptions. Note that this data is not an indication of the availability of home broadband service, but rather of the extent to which households are actually connected to it.

The term “Fixed broadband Internet” as used by the Census includes wireline broadband technologies (cable Internet, DSL, fiber to the premises) as well as satellite and “fixed wireless” technologies. It does not include 3G and 4G mobile service such as one purchases for a smartphone, or non-broadband connections like dial-up modems. 

NDIA focused on fixed broadband subscriptions in this comparison of household connection rates, because the strict data caps common to mobile Internet services make mobile much less useful for general household Internet access.