Bent County is genuinely hard to serve. 20.7% 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 Bent County sits in Colorado
Share of addresses with no fixed broadband at 25/3 Mbps
0.0% to 3.4%
3.4% to 6.0%
6.0% to 9.5%
9.5% to 13%
13% to 21%
21% to 29%
29% 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 Bent County
Locations covered by each technology, out of 2,615 broadband serviceable locations. An address can be reached by more than one technology, so these add up to more than 100%.
Fiber0 · 0.0%
Cable0 · 0.0%
Licensed fixed wireless1,182 · 45%
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
1,182
45.2%
Underserved
892
34.1%
Unserved
541
20.7%
What that means if you live here
The USDA classes Bent 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 5,759 people live across those locations, roughly 2.2 people per serviceable address.
541 locations, 20.7%, or better than one address in five, have no fixed service reaching 25/3 Mbps. That is a large gap even by rural standards.
Another 892 can get something, but not the 100/20 Mbps the FCC now treats as the benchmark.
The most widely available technology here is licensed fixed wireless, reaching 1,182 locations (45.2%); next is fiber at 0.0%.
Practically no fiber has been built here. The filings show 0 locations reached.
Licensed fixed wireless covers 45.2% of Bent County, wider than anything else available. In a county shaped like this it is usually the practical answer rather than the fallback.
10 providers file coverage here. None of them offer fiber; 3 offer licensed fixed wireless.
Reported fiber coverage fell by 1,628 locations over twelve months. That normally means a provider corrected an earlier over-report, not that service was removed.
Served locations fell 32.92% year on year, usually a filing correction rather than a loss of service.
Bent County is harder-served than the typical Colorado county, where the median unserved share is 8.5%.
Fiber lags the rest of Colorado, where the median county is at 43.0%.
What people actually measure in Colorado
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
Comcast Cable Communications
165 Mbps
55.9 Mbps to 348 Mbps
17.3 Mbps
8 ms
341,963
CenturyLink Communications
80.7 Mbps
19.3 Mbps to 263 Mbps
30.6 Mbps
6 ms
91,196
Verizon Business
34.9 Mbps
9.4 Mbps to 102 Mbps
6.1 Mbps
29 ms
51,728
Space Exploration Technologies
75.0 Mbps
30.4 Mbps to 128 Mbps
7.2 Mbps
26 ms
38,166
Charter Communications
128 Mbps
61.2 Mbps to 235 Mbps
10.7 Mbps
29 ms
17,100
ZSCALER
58.2 Mbps
21.4 Mbps to 114 Mbps
17.8 Mbps
0 ms
16,664
TDS TELECOM
121 Mbps
53.3 Mbps to 304 Mbps
12.9 Mbps
13 ms
7,002
Longmont Power & Communications
207 Mbps
70.5 Mbps to 444 Mbps
139 Mbps
4 ms
5,965
Ting Fiber
245 Mbps
93.8 Mbps to 501 Mbps
204 Mbps
4 ms
3,871
Pulse
169 Mbps
72.7 Mbps to 373 Mbps
147 Mbps
23 ms
3,045
Cellular networks, measured
The same measurement for the mobile networks behind 5G home internet. These tests come from phones as well as home gateways, so treat them as an indication of network health in the state rather than a home-internet plan speed.
Network
Median download
Middle half of tests
Median upload
Latency
Tests
T-Mobile USA
51.2 Mbps
12.6 Mbps to 137 Mbps
6.5 Mbps
30 ms
65,978
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.
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Your realistic options in Bent 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