Fiber is actively arriving in Marion County. It reached 5,053 more locations here in the last twelve months. Check whether your own address is inside a build before committing to anything with a contract.
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 Marion County sits in Iowa
Share of addresses with no fixed broadband at 25/3 Mbps
0.0% to 0.4%
0.4% to 0.8%
0.8% to 1.5%
1.5% to 2.2%
2.2% to 4.7%
4.7% to 11%
11% 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 Marion County
Locations covered by each technology, out of 14,715 broadband serviceable locations. An address can be reached by more than one technology, so these add up to more than 100%.
Fiber8,051 · 55%
Cable9,451 · 64%
Licensed fixed wireless10,384 · 71%
Unlicensed fixed wireless0 · 0.0%
DSL over copper3,807 · 26%
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
13,189
89.6%
Underserved
672
4.6%
Unserved
854
5.8%
What that means if you live here
The USDA classes Marion County as a nonmetro county with an urban population of 5,000 to 20,000, adjacent to a metro area (continuum code 6).
About 33,380 people live across those locations, roughly 2.3 people per serviceable address.
5.8% of addresses here, 854 of them, fall below 25/3 Mbps or have no fixed option at all.
Another 672 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 10,384 locations (70.6%); next is cable at 64.2%.
Fiber reaches 8,051 locations, 54.7% of the county.
Licensed fixed wireless covers 70.6% of Marion County, wider than anything else available. In a county shaped like this it is usually the practical answer rather than the fallback.
Cable reaches 64.2% of locations, more than fiber does, and it will be concentrated in the built-up parts of the county.
Filings come from 19 providers, of which 8 offer fiber and 6 licensed fixed wireless.
Fiber reached 5,053 more locations in Marion County over the last twelve months, a 34.3% swing in the county's total.
Served locations rose 1.63% year on year.
Marion County is harder-served than the typical Iowa county, where the median unserved share is 1.7%.
Fiber lags the rest of Iowa, where the median county is at 74.4%.
What people actually measure in Iowa
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
Mediacom Communications
113 Mbps
57.0 Mbps to 282 Mbps
24.4 Mbps
24 ms
58,533
CenturyLink Communications
36.7 Mbps
10.5 Mbps to 93.8 Mbps
7.1 Mbps
29 ms
17,538
Metronet
178 Mbps
73.8 Mbps to 338 Mbps
124 Mbps
24 ms
16,112
Aureon Network Services
78.4 Mbps
29.3 Mbps to 115 Mbps
47.4 Mbps
23 ms
11,340
ImOn Communications
90.8 Mbps
33.9 Mbps to 183 Mbps
42.9 Mbps
16 ms
8,635
Windstream Communications
37.6 Mbps
12.2 Mbps to 81.3 Mbps
10.7 Mbps
36 ms
8,336
Verizon Business
36.1 Mbps
9.9 Mbps to 96.6 Mbps
7.5 Mbps
45 ms
4,642
CABLE ONE
122 Mbps
55.1 Mbps to 203 Mbps
22.4 Mbps
64 ms
3,325
South Slope Cooperative Telephone
61.6 Mbps
33.5 Mbps to 184 Mbps
44.6 Mbps
21 ms
3,202
ICS Advanced Technologies
85.4 Mbps
30.4 Mbps to 184 Mbps
57.0 Mbps
24 ms
3,083
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 Marion County
Fiber
Fiber, if it has reached you
The best outcome by a distance: symmetric speed, low latency, no weather sensitivity, no data ceiling in practice.
Best for
Anyone whose address is inside a fiber build. Always check this first.
Watch out
Coverage stops abruptly at the edge of a build. Being a mile from fiber is the same as being fifty.
5G home internet
T-Mobile Home Internet
Home internet over T-Mobile’s cellular network. A gateway box you plug in yourself; no truck roll, no dish.
Best for
Rural addresses that still get a usable T-Mobile signal, often near a highway or a town
Watch out
Availability is decided address by address, not by town. Speed varies with how busy the local tower is.