Madison County is better served than most rural counties. Fiber already reaches 90.8% of locations, so the first question is not what to buy but whether fiber has reached your road.
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 Madison County sits in Montana
Share of addresses with no fixed broadband at 25/3 Mbps
0.0% to 4.8%
4.8% to 6.4%
6.4% to 8.5%
8.5% to 13%
13% to 17%
17% to 27%
27% 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 Madison County
Locations covered by each technology, out of 7,093 broadband serviceable locations. An address can be reached by more than one technology, so these add up to more than 100%.
Fiber6,440 · 91%
Cable0 · 0.0%
Licensed fixed wireless1,278 · 18%
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
6,464
91.1%
Underserved
162
2.3%
Unserved
467
6.6%
What that means if you live here
The USDA classes Madison County as a completely rural county, or one with an urban population under 5,000, adjacent to a metro area (continuum code 8).
Population is around 8,917, which works out to about 1.3 people for every address on the list.
467 locations, 6.6% of the county, have nothing that reaches 25/3 Mbps.
A further 2.3% of the county sits in the middle: served, but below the 100/20 Mbps mark.
The most widely available technology here is fiber, reaching 6,440 locations (90.8%); next is licensed fixed wireless at 18.0%.
Fiber already reaches 90.8% of the county (6,440 locations), which puts Madison County well ahead of most rural America.
12 providers file coverage in Madison County: 1 with fiber, 0 with cable, 4 with licensed fixed wireless.
In twelve months fiber went from 6,261 locations to 6,440 here.
Served locations rose 2.59% year on year.
That is better than the typical Montana county, whose median unserved share is 11.7%.
Fiber is further along here than in most of Montana, where the median county reaches 52.7%.
What people actually measure in Montana
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
Charter Communications
125 Mbps
49.5 Mbps to 239 Mbps
10.5 Mbps
52 ms
34,897
3 Rivers Telephone Cooperative
109 Mbps
46.0 Mbps to 211 Mbps
111 Mbps
30 ms
6,171
CenturyLink Communications
16.3 Mbps
5.9 Mbps to 42.6 Mbps
1.7 Mbps
53 ms
4,899
Blackfoot Telephone Cooperative
30.9 Mbps
9.6 Mbps to 93.7 Mbps
10.2 Mbps
30 ms
2,849
Mid-Rivers Telephone Cooperative
139 Mbps
73.2 Mbps to 288 Mbps
57.5 Mbps
32 ms
1,613
Montana Sky Networks
25.9 Mbps
14.4 Mbps to 51.7 Mbps
9.8 Mbps
18 ms
1,043
Montana Opticom
68.5 Mbps
42.0 Mbps to 77.3 Mbps
43.8 Mbps
50 ms
1,029
Nemont
65.6 Mbps
27.0 Mbps to 93.0 Mbps
52.9 Mbps
38 ms
964
Global Net
26.2 Mbps
20.3 Mbps to 93.5 Mbps
9.1 Mbps
62 ms
927
Gallatin Wireless Internet
15.1 Mbps
7.1 Mbps to 28.8 Mbps
4.8 Mbps
44 ms
901
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 Madison 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.
Fixed wireless
A local fixed-wireless provider
A regional operator beaming service from a tower or ridge to an antenna on your roof. In much of rural America this is the fastest thing available.
Best for
Counties where the FCC data shows large licensed fixed-wireless coverage, which this page tells you
Watch out
Needs line of sight. Quality varies enormously between operators; ask neighbours, not the sales page.
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.