Harrison County is better served than most rural counties. Fiber already reaches 71.1% 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 Harrison County sits in West Virginia
Share of addresses with no fixed broadband at 25/3 Mbps
0.0% to 10%
10% to 12%
12% to 19%
19% to 27%
27% to 32%
32% to 49%
49% 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 Harrison County
Locations covered by each technology, out of 32,813 broadband serviceable locations. An address can be reached by more than one technology, so these add up to more than 100%.
Fiber23,332 · 71%
Cable26,869 · 82%
Licensed fixed wireless19,739 · 60%
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
29,202
89.0%
Underserved
381
1.2%
Unserved
3,230
9.8%
What that means if you live here
The USDA classes Harrison County as a nonmetro county with an urban population of 20,000 or more, not adjacent to a metro area (continuum code 5).
Population is around 65,158, which works out to about 2.0 people for every address on the list.
3,230 locations, 9.8% of the county, have nothing that reaches 25/3 Mbps.
The most widely available technology here is cable, reaching 26,869 locations (81.9%); next is fiber at 71.1%.
Fiber already reaches 71.1% of the county (23,332 locations), which puts Harrison County well ahead of most rural America.
Licensed fixed wireless covers 60.2% of the county. It does not reach as far as cable does here, but it reaches places cable does not.
Cable reaches 81.9% of locations, more than fiber does, and it will be concentrated in the built-up parts of the county.
15 providers file coverage in Harrison County: 6 with fiber, 4 with cable, 3 with licensed fixed wireless.
In twelve months fiber went from 21,618 locations to 23,332 here.
Served locations rose 0.86% year on year.
That is better than the typical West Virginia county, whose median unserved share is 15.2%.
Fiber is further along here than in most of West Virginia, where the median county reaches 43.6%.
What people actually measure in West Virginia
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
132 Mbps
52.1 Mbps to 315 Mbps
17.5 Mbps
20 ms
25,965
Optimum
113 Mbps
50.9 Mbps to 278 Mbps
17.6 Mbps
26 ms
24,131
Frontier Communications of America
18.2 Mbps
5.8 Mbps to 149 Mbps
1.7 Mbps
34 ms
22,815
Shenandoah Cable Television
93.1 Mbps
35.7 Mbps to 157 Mbps
10.4 Mbps
23 ms
4,138
Charter Communications
123 Mbps
50.4 Mbps to 262 Mbps
10.9 Mbps
33 ms
2,648
Community Antenna Service
128 Mbps
49.1 Mbps to 298 Mbps
34.0 Mbps
30 ms
1,946
CityNet
82.4 Mbps
36.1 Mbps to 147 Mbps
42.1 Mbps
25 ms
1,894
West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing
83.0 Mbps
30.0 Mbps to 195 Mbps
82.2 Mbps
30 ms
1,653
Hughes Network Systems
22.9 Mbps
7.3 Mbps to 41.4 Mbps
2.5 Mbps
65 ms
1,630
Armstrong
104 Mbps
55.8 Mbps to 223 Mbps
19.2 Mbps
32 ms
1,413
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 Harrison 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.