Top 10 US Broadband Providers by FCC Coverage Records
PlainBroadband ranks broadband providers by the total number of coverage records each provider reports to the FCC Form 477 dataset. Sourced from the FCC's final Form 477 release.
Research period:
Research question
Among the 2,142 broadband providers tracked in PlainBroadband, which providers report the largest absolute coverage footprint across the FCC Form 477 dataset, and how does national satellite coverage compare to regional terrestrial-network coverage in raw record counts?
Methodology
This ranking is built from the FCC's final Form 477 fixed-broadband-deployment release (June 2020 status) - the last snapshot published before the program was retired. Because the program has ended, these figures are a stable historical record rather than a live-refreshing feed; nothing here changes without a new upstream release from the FCC.
Providers with no data reported are left out of the ranking rather than shown as a false zero, since the FCC occasionally withheld a figure for confidentiality or data-quality reasons in the original release.
Every number on this page traces back to a specific FCC Form 477 record, so you can verify it yourself against the original source rather than taking our word for it. See the methodology page for the full data pipeline and dataset vintage.
Top 10 US Broadband Providers by FCC Coverage Records
From the FCC's final Form 477 release, a stable historical record
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects the FCC's final Form 477 release, a stable historical record.
| # | Provider | FCC coverage records | States served |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ViaSat, Inc. | 11,049,786 | 51 |
| 2 | Hughes Network Systems, LLC | 10,633,804 | 53 |
| 3 | VSAT Systems, LLC | 10,575,951 | 50 |
| 4 | AT&T Inc. | 5,264,043 | 21 |
| 5 | Charter Communications | 2,254,797 | 42 |
| 6 | Frontier Communications Corporation | 2,137,262 | 27 |
| 7 | Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. | 1,868,485 | 39 |
| 8 | Comcast Corporation | 1,694,032 | 40 |
| 9 | CenturyLink, Inc. | 1,432,675 | 37 |
| 10 | Verizon Communications Inc. | 1,079,684 | 33 |
Source: Federal Communications Commission, Form 477 Fixed Broadband Deployment Data (June 2020 status). A stable historical snapshot; the source dataset is no longer updated. Federal Communications Commission, Form 477 Fixed Broadband Deployment Data (June 2020 status). A stable historical snapshot; the source dataset is no longer updated.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is ViaSat, Inc., with a value of 11,049,786 on the FCC coverage records column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value derives from the underlying providers table; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the Federal Communications Commission publishes a revision and our ETL pipeline reingests, the ranking and the prose around it update on the next page load.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (11,049,786) and the 10th-ranked record (1,079,684) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full providers population, the aggregate query returns the following summary statistics. These anchors situate the top-10 ranking against the underlying population: how many records exist in total, what the sum of the ranking column is across all qualifying rows, and what the mean per-record value looks like. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied by the aggregate query (records with null or zero values on the ranking column are excluded). The aggregate row is computed by the same database engine that renders the ranking above, against the same snapshot.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from Federal Communications Commission, specifically the Form 477 Fixed Broadband Deployment Data (June 2020 status). PlainBroadband ingested that release once and serves it as a stable historical record, since the FCC Form 477 fixed-deployment program has been retired and is no longer updated. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and the transformation steps applied during ETL.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
FCC Form 477 fixed broadband deployment dataset coverage records measure the number of distinct broadband-serviceable locations a provider reports as being able to serve, not actual subscriber counts, installed connections, or active customers. National satellite providers (ViaSat, Hughes Network Systems) naturally dominate raw record counts because satellite coverage is geographic-overhead rather than wire-by-wire installed; their record counts reflect overall continental coverage rather than concentrated subscriber density. Terrestrial providers (fiber, cable, fixed wireless) report records based on actual buildout or planned-serviceability footprint within their network territory. Provider names reflect the corporate parent registered with the FCC; subsidiary and rebranded service operations may appear under the parent's name. State count is the distinct number of states where the provider reports at least one coverage record; it does not reflect coverage depth or population reach within each state. Coverage records are self-reported by providers under Form 477 requirements and are subject to FCC challenge and verification processes.
Secondary cut from the same source
Top 10 broadband providers ranked by geographic breadth (state coverage)
Sources
- Federal Communications Commission, Form 477 fixed broadband deployment dataset Public Release - https://www.fcc.gov/general/broadband-deployment-data-fcc-form-477
- FCC, National Broadband Map - https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/