The State of Broadband in New Hampshire, 2020
Written by the BroadbandNow team. Last updated
9/1/2020.
New Hampshire is the 23rd most well-connected State in the US. The State has 68 internet providers, and its residents enjoy rather even distribution of wired broadband internet services, with the vast majority (96%) of the population having access to speeds of 25 Mbps or higher. The average download speed in New Hampshire is 144.3 Mbps, which is similar to the average speeds in Pennsylvania, Washington State, and Arizona.
The Digital Divide in New Hampshire
New Hampshire residents have relatively equal access to the internet in terms of coverage and speed throughout the State. In this regard, the digital divide between those who have access to high-speed internet and those who do not is relatively small, especially when compared to states with more sporadic coverage. Over 94% (more than 1.28 million) of people in New Hampshire have access to wired broadband capable of download speeds of 100 Mbps or higher.
Still, there remains a gap between New Hampshire and some other States, which offer higher speeds and lower pricing. For example, accessibility to gigabit speeds is lacking in New Hampshire, with only 7.4% coverage of the population at these speeds.
At this time, 10,000 people in New Hampshire still do not have access to any wired internet providers at their location. An additional 27,000 do not have access to a wired provider capable of 25 Mbps speeds. Further, 76,000 residents have only one internet provider offering services in their area, meaning that they do not have the option of comparing prices and services with other providers.
Affordability data also shows that only 36.4% of New Hampshire’s residents have access to a broadband plan that costs $60 or less per month. This is significantly lower than the national average of 51.5% of consumers who have access to a low-price plan.
Best-Connected Cities
With the highest-ranking listed first, the New Hampshire cities with the best combination of internet speed, coverage, and price are Windham, Hudson, Weare, Portsmouth, and Derry.
Worst-Connected Cities
On the flip side, the cities with the comparatively worst connection in New Hampshire are Chesterfield, South Acworth, Errol, North Sandwich, and Bretton Woods, with the lowest-ranking last in the list.
Check out how New Hampshire’s internet stats compare with other states here.
Governmental Initiatives
New Hampshire has been the benefactor of 1.3% of all federal infrastructure grants, with almost $44.5 million awarded to the State to aid in developing broadband infrastructure.
The New Hampshire Broadband Mapping & Planning Program was the grantee of over $6 million to fund research on how to expand broadband availability throughout the State.
Since 2011, the State has seen improvement from 75.9% to 98.8% in terms of the percentage of residents with accessibility to a wired connection capable of at least 10 Mbps download speeds.
Information backing this article has been taken from both public and private data sources. Learn more about our data here.