This market is moderately concentrated — above the 1,500 line where the federal merger guidelines begin to apply scrutiny (the 2023 guidelines treat anything past 1,800 as highly concentrated).
1,501
1,5002,500CompetitiveMonopoly
Ranks #8 of 12 tracked markets by HHI.
Evidence atlas
Source to public action route
60%
Public coverage0 share rows
Live evidence packetMetric routed1,501 routes through public methodology
Reusable rows1051 sources, 0 share rows
Public actionNear-term watchTrack roll-ups, serial acquisitions, vertical restraints, and remedy compliance before concentration hardens further.
Data
2024
Verified
Packet
105 rows
1 core source
Action
Near-term watch
HHI 1,501
Public stake
Telecommunications
Concentrated markets turn everyday access into private leverage.
Evidence posture
Verified
105 reusable rows across 1 core source.
Government duty
Near-term watch
Track roll-ups, serial acquisitions, vertical restraints, and remedy compliance before concentration hardens further.
HHI
1,501
Moderately concentrated
Top firm
N/A
Market share
CR4
N/A
Top 4 firms
Data status
Verified
Source availability
Confidence
High
Methodology limits
Review flags
2
Near-term watch
Source-backed concentration profile
FCC Internet Access Services reporting publishes national HHI and medians of separately calculated state, county, and census-tract HHIs from December 2020 through December 2024.
Observatory market brief
Fixed broadband: moderately concentrated, with observed HHI up 330 points.
The latest 2024 screen reports HHI 1,501, classified as moderately concentrated. HHI rose by 330 points from 2020 to 2024, moving from 1,171 to 1,501.
01
Latest structure
HHI 1,501
The latest 2024 screen reports HHI 1,501, classified as moderately concentrated.
02
Published change
+330 HHI
HHI rose by 330 points from 2020 to 2024, moving from 1,171 to 1,501.
03
Evidence custody
1 custody record
1 record in the evidence custody chain, 0 latest share rows, 0 linked official records, and 1 related brief support this profile. Status is verified with high confidence.
Comparison window
HHI
20201,171Change+33020241,501
HHI points
Measured-market context#8 of 8latest sourced HHI rank
Public research question
How does the published concentration screen vary across relevant geographic markets, customer groups, and later source releases?
Near-term watch
Track roll-ups, serial acquisitions, vertical restraints, and remedy compliance before concentration hardens further.Open public-action route
Market-definition contract
Read the boundary before the metric.
This profile’s concentration claims apply only to the product, geography, denominator, and measurement basis documented below.
Agency definedhigh confidence2024 basis
Product boundary
Residential fixed internet connections with at least 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream
Geographic boundary
United States for the canonical market-profile series; separately calculated state, county, and census-tract HHIs are retained as geographic summaries
Measurement basis
FCC source-reported provider-share HHI for qualifying residential fixed connections
Denominator
Reported residential fixed connections meeting the 100/20 Mbps threshold in each FCC geographic calculation
Included
The annual December national HHI anchors and an exact route to the full four-scope semiannual FCC series
Excluded
Provider identities and shares, areas without a qualifying connection, slower service tiers, mobile broadband, enterprise service, and any claim that a geographic median is a legal market
Cross-market use
Screen only
Time-series use
Comparable anchors
Method note
Publish only the December national HHI rows as market-profile anchors and preserve all four geographic summaries in the linked FCC resolution ladder.
The national HHI and medians of separately calculated state, county, and census-tract HHIs describe different geographic summaries. The source does not publish provider shares in this release, and none of these rows by itself establishes a legal product or geographic market.
Boundary source
Internet Access Services: Status as of December 31 2024
Federal Communications Commission · accessed 2026-07-21
Declared economy screen / navigation only
NAICS 517111 / Wired telecommunications carriers
2022 national industry HHI 1,285.9; this does not redefine or validate the market above.
The same 0-10,000 HHI scale does not make different product, geographic, or denominator definitions economically interchangeable. Cross-market HHI is a descriptive screen only.
Evidence timeline
Follow the profile from source record to public action.
Each profile should read like an inspectable research route: source access, concentration metric, participant table, official policy chronology, briefing, and the government question it creates.
One fixed-broadband measure, four geographic summaries.
The five annual market-profile anchors are the December national subset of the FCC's complete 36-row semiannual release. State, county, and tract values remain medians of separately calculated geographic HHIs.
5annual national anchors
36full FCC rows
4separate summaries
HHI resolution field
Dec 2020 to Dec 2024
Fixed 0-8,000 HHI scale
National HHIHHI calculated across all reported U.S. residential fixed connections in the speed tier.State medianMedian of the separately calculated state-level HHIs in each reporting period.County medianMedian of the separately calculated county-level HHIs in each reporting period.Tract medianMedian of the separately calculated census-tract HHIs in each reporting period.
Peer comparison atlas
Read this market against nearby evidence.
Strong public profiles are navigable. This view connects the current market to sector peers, concentration peers, and disclosure-gap peers using the public metrics already in the observatory. Node size follows published HHI; withheld HHI uses the smallest marker.
Keep HHI, firm shares, trend, and evidence quality separate so researchers can inspect why this market is routed for review.
Review posture
Near-term watch
Confidence
High confidence
Exact flags
2 visible
Screening rule
Review posture uses published concentration thresholds, trend direction, and evidence status as separate signals. It does not estimate consumer harm or establish legal liability.
Public implication
Track roll-ups, serial acquisitions, vertical restraints, and remedy compliance before concentration hardens further.
Evidence still needed
Complete participant shares and residual-category treatment
HHI 1,501 (below 1,800)HHI trend increasing
Data provenance
Methodology: Use source-reported national HHI for annual market-profile anchors. Keep state, county, and tract medians in the geographic resolution ladder and do not infer provider shares.
Limitations: Latest national row from the same 36-record FCC release used by the geographic resolution ladder.
Internet Access Services: Status as of December 31 2024
Federal Communications Commission
agency report
Federal Communications Commission, Internet Access Services: Status as of December 31, 2024, Figure 5, published 2026.
Fixed broadband (United States / separately reported state, county, and census-tract summaries, 2024): HHI 1,501; CR4 not public; top-firm share not public; verified public data; high confidence; action posture: Near-term watch.
A compact audit of whether the profile has enough public evidence to support action.
Watchlist ready
Freshness2024Latest source access Jul 21, 2026Coverage60%0 of 0 latest rows include sharesAPI routes9Filtered public JSON endpoints for reuseSource mix1agency report
Source mix
1 sources
agency report1
Hardening watch
Refresh shares when the source table updates
Keep residual categories auditable
Monitor conduct, access, and switching-cost evidence
Public evidence packet
Jump from this market profile to the filtered machine-readable rows behind the public claim.
Use source-reported national HHI for annual market-profile anchors. Keep state, county, and tract medians in the geographic resolution ladder and do not infer provider shares.