Internet in Union County, OR
Union County is genuinely hard to serve. 14.3% 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.
What reaches homes in Union County
Locations covered by each technology, out of 11,831 broadband serviceable locations. An address can be reached by more than one technology, so these add up to more than 100%.
Fiber
6,479 · 55%
Cable
7,095 · 60%
Licensed fixed wireless
2,864 · 24%
Unlicensed fixed wireless
315 · 2.7%
DSL over copper
0 · 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 | 8,276 | 70.0% |
|---|
| Underserved | 1,865 | 15.8% |
|---|
| Unserved | 1,690 | 14.3% |
|---|
What that means if you live here
- The USDA classes Union County as a nonmetro county with an urban population of 5,000 to 20,000, not adjacent to a metro area (continuum code 7).
- About 26,212 people live across those locations, roughly 2.2 people per serviceable address.
- 14.3% of addresses here, 1,690 of them, fall below 25/3 Mbps or have no fixed option at all.
- Another 1,865 can get something, but not the 100/20 Mbps the FCC now treats as the benchmark.
- The most widely available technology here is cable, reaching 7,095 locations (60.0%); next is fiber at 54.8%.
- Fiber reaches 6,479 locations, 54.8% of the county.
- Cable reaches 60.0% 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 9 offer fiber and 3 licensed fixed wireless.
- Fiber reached 223 more locations in Union County over the last twelve months, a 1.9% swing in the county's total.
- Served locations fell 9.00% year on year, usually a filing correction rather than a loss of service.
- Union County is harder-served than the typical Oregon county, where the median unserved share is 9.3%.
- Fiber is further along here than in most of Oregon, where the median county reaches 42.4%.
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 Union 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
See Starlink
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.
See T-Mobile Home Internet
5G home internet
Verizon Home Internet
The same idea on Verizon’s network, offered as 5G Home or LTE Home depending on what reaches your address.
- Best for
- Addresses with Verizon coverage where T-Mobile is weak
- Watch out
- LTE Home and 5G Home behave very differently. Confirm which one your address actually qualifies for.
See Verizon Home Internet
Satellite
Viasat
The other geostationary satellite provider. Same latency physics as HughesNet, different plans and data policies.
- Best for
- A geostationary alternative if you are leaving HughesNet and have no LEO or wireless option
- Watch out
- Same latency ceiling. Read the data-priority terms rather than the headline speed.
See Viasat
Equipment
A cellular signal booster
An outdoor antenna, an amplifier and an indoor antenna. Turns a marginal one-bar signal into something a 5G home gateway can actually use.
- Best for
- Addresses where 5G home internet is offered but the indoor signal is too weak to be reliable
- Watch out
- A booster amplifies what is already there. If there is genuinely no signal outside, it cannot invent one.
See A cellular signal booster
What changed in the last year
Comparing the current filing against the same county twelve months earlier.
| Measure | Twelve months ago | Now |
|---|
| Locations with fiber | 6,256 | 6,479 |
|---|
| Change in served locations | , | -9.00% |
|---|
Nearby and related
- All of Oregon
- Wallowa County, OR
- Wasco County, OR
- Wheeler County, OR
- Baker County, OR
- Clatsop County, OR
- Coos County, OR
- Curry County, OR
- Douglas County, OR
- Gilliam County, OR
- Grant County, OR
- Harney County, OR
- Hood River County, OR
Sources
Page last updated 2026-09-01. The date moves when the underlying data moves, not when the site is rebuilt.