Stone County is genuinely hard to serve. 17.3% of locations here have no fixed broadband at all, so for a lot of addresses the real choice is satellite or a cellular home-internet gateway, not a wired provider.
Everything below comes from the FCC's Broadband Data Collection, the filings providers are legally required to make about where they offer service. It describes the county; your own address can differ, and that is exactly why the technology mix matters.
Where Stone County sits in Arkansas
Share of addresses with no fixed broadband at 25/3 Mbps
0.0% to 2.0%
2.0% to 4.2%
4.2% to 5.9%
5.9% to 10%
10% to 14%
14% to 20%
20% and above
not published
This county is outlined. Darker means a larger share of addresses with no fixed broadband. Select any county to open it.
What reaches homes in Stone County
Locations covered by each technology, out of 7,876 broadband serviceable locations. An address can be reached by more than one technology, so these add up to more than 100%.
Fiber3,171 · 40%
Cable1,720 · 22%
Licensed fixed wireless1,542 · 20%
Unlicensed fixed wireless0 · 0.0%
DSL over copper0 · 0.0%
Served, underserved, unserved
The FCC's three categories. "Served" means at least 100/20 Mbps is available; "underserved" means at least 25/3 but below 100/20; "unserved" means below 25/3 or nothing at all.
Category
Locations
Share of county
Served
5,386
68.4%
Underserved
1,128
14.3%
Unserved
1,362
17.3%
What that means if you live here
The USDA classes Stone County as a completely rural county, or one with an urban population under 5,000, not adjacent to any metro area (continuum code 9).
About 12,481 people live across those locations, roughly 1.6 people per serviceable address.
17.3% of addresses here, 1,362 of them, fall below 25/3 Mbps or have no fixed option at all.
Another 1,128 can get something, but not the 100/20 Mbps the FCC now treats as the benchmark.
The most widely available technology here is fiber, reaching 3,171 locations (40.3%); next is cable at 21.8%.
Fiber reaches 3,171 locations, 40.3% of the county.
Filings come from 16 providers, of which 7 offer fiber and 3 licensed fixed wireless.
Fiber reached 277 more locations in Stone County over the last twelve months, a 3.5% swing in the county's total.
Served locations rose 27.12% year on year.
Stone County is harder-served than the typical Arkansas county, where the median unserved share is 5.3%.
Fiber lags the rest of Arkansas, where the median county is at 72.5%.
What people actually measure in Arkansas
Median of real speed tests run on each network during 2024, from M-Lab. This is measured performance, not an advertised plan speed, and not a customer review. The middle-half column shows how consistent a network is: a wide spread means your experience depends heavily on where and when.
Network
Median download
Middle half of tests
Median upload
Latency
Tests
AT&T Enterprises
68.4 Mbps
17.5 Mbps to 261 Mbps
31.7 Mbps
21 ms
30,137
Cox Communications
121 Mbps
50.7 Mbps to 295 Mbps
11.8 Mbps
23 ms
27,984
Verizon Business
27.2 Mbps
6.7 Mbps to 68.5 Mbps
4.8 Mbps
46 ms
16,785
Optimum
105 Mbps
46.3 Mbps to 223 Mbps
14.4 Mbps
40 ms
14,268
Comcast Cable Communications
121 Mbps
50.8 Mbps to 291 Mbps
21.0 Mbps
13 ms
13,174
Ritter Communications
97.8 Mbps
44.2 Mbps to 193 Mbps
47.7 Mbps
25 ms
8,440
Windstream Communications
46.5 Mbps
14.9 Mbps to 125 Mbps
23.0 Mbps
24 ms
6,514
Brightspeed
10.6 Mbps
3.9 Mbps to 30.1 Mbps
0.9 Mbps
35 ms
4,992
Connect 2 First Internet
223 Mbps
94.2 Mbps to 409 Mbps
110 Mbps
12 ms
4,803
Cablelynx
91.1 Mbps
40.1 Mbps to 172 Mbps
15.5 Mbps
30 ms
4,785
Latency is the number that decides whether video calls and gaming feel right, and it is where satellite differs most from everything else. Measured data is statewide: below county level there are usually too few tests to report an honest number.
Disclosure: some links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up for a service or buy equipment through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes which options we list or the order we rank them in, and we do not accept payment for a better placement.
Your realistic options in Stone County
Satellite
Starlink
Low-earth-orbit satellite. Latency is low enough for video calls and most gaming, unlike older satellite services.
Best for
Anywhere with a clear view of the sky and no wired option
Watch out
Hardware costs money up front, and heavy tree cover or a north-facing obstruction will cost you throughput