Internet in Clearwater, Florida
Fiber is available at 57.0% of the 32,958 homes and businesses the FCC counts in Clearwater, and wired broadband of at least 100/20 Mbps at 95.7%. 91.7% of locations have a choice of two or more wired providers at that speed; at 4.0% there is only one.1
FCC National Broadband Map, availability as of June 30, 2026 (data revised November 10, 2026), as reported by providers.
Clearwater in Florida
Clearwater is wired twice by cable: Spectrum reports service at 95.5% of its homes and businesses and WOW! at 91.4%. Fiber is the part that lags. It reaches 57.0% of locations, less than in St. Petersburg, Tampa or Florida as a whole, although it gained 5.6 percentage points1 in the six months to June 30, 2026.
Who wires Clearwater
Spectrum is the one provider reported at virtually every location: 95.5% of Clearwater's 32,958 homes and businesses, nearly all over cable, with a fastest advertised download of 1 Gbps. WOW!, a cable company that reports service in only 6 states, covers 91.4%. Frontier reports 54.6%1, and at almost all of it the service is fiber. Below those three, the table is fixed wireless, satellite and Tillman Fiber's small fiber footprint.
| Spectrum | Fiber Cable | 95.5% | 95.5% | 1 Gbps | 3.8% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WOW! | Cable | 91.4% | 91.4% | 1.2 Gbps | 0.1% |
| T-Mobile | Licensed wireless | 78.8% | 23.1% | 100 Mbps | – |
| AT&T | Licensed wireless | 67.7% | 3.6% | 100 Mbps | – |
| Frontier | Fiber DSL | 54.6% | 54.5% | 7 Gbps | 0.0% |
| Verizon | Licensed wireless | 28.7% | 11.8% | 1 Gbps | – |
| Rapid Systems | Licensed wireless | 1.4% | 0.0% | 50 Mbps | – |
| Tillman Fiber | Fiber | 0.8% | 0.8% | 2 Gbps | – |
| Hotwire Communications | Fiber | 0.0% | 0.0% | 8 Gbps | – |
| Summit Broadband Inc. | Fiber | 0.0% | 0.0% | – | – |
Source: FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2026. Share of the area's broadband serviceable locations where the provider reports service as of June 30, 2026. "Only wired option" is the share of locations where it is the single wired provider at 100/20 Mbps. Provider-reported and challengeable; speeds are advertised maximums, not measured; no prices. Satellite providers (HughesNet, Starlink, Viasat) report service at nearly every location and are left out of the table.
The shares are the providers' own filings with the FCC, as of June 30, 2026 (revision of November 10, 2026), and count homes and businesses within Clearwater's 2020 Census boundary. "Available" here means the company says it can connect that location within ten business days; residents can dispute a filing through the FCC map, which is also where a single address can be looked up.
Two cable networks set the baseline
Wired service of at least 100/20 Mbps is reported at 95.7% of locations, tied for 32nd lowest among large cities; 1,435 locations lack it. Choice at that speed is just as wide: 91.7% of locations have two or more wired providers, a share tied for 53rd highest among large cities, against 66.0% statewide and 55.6%1 nationally. That share was already 87.9% in 2022, when fiber reached 35.3%2 of locations, because WOW! overlaps Spectrum almost everywhere.
Source: FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2026. Different wired providers (fiber, cable or DSL; FCC provider IDs) reporting 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up or more at the same location. Fixed wireless and satellite are not counted.
Show the numbers
| Area | None | One | Two | Three or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearwater | 4.4% | 4.0% | 36.8% | 54.9% |
| Florida | 3.8% | 30.2% | 54.2% | 11.8% |
| United States | 7.8% | 36.6% | 44.6% | 11.1% |
What fiber changes is the third option. Where Frontier has fiber, a location usually has three wired providers at 100/20 Mbps; where it does not, two cable companies. That split is visible in the totals: 54.9% of locations have three or more, up from 34.9%2 in 2022, and 36.8% have exactly two. Only 1,309 locations, 3.8% of the city, depend on Spectrum alone for 100/20 Mbps; WOW! is the sole option at 0.1%1 of locations.
Fiber trails the rest of the bay
Of the three large cities around Tampa Bay, Clearwater has the smallest fiber share. Fiber is reported at 57.0% of its locations, against 69.9% in St. Petersburg, 87.9% in Tampa and 63.1% across Pinellas County. Statewide the figure is 68.4%. Among the 343 cities of 100,000 or more, Clearwater's share ranks 110th lowest1.
Source: FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2026. FCC file revision of November 10, 2026. Shares are of broadband serviceable locations (homes and businesses), not people.
Show the numbers
| Area | Fiber available |
|---|---|
| Tampa | 87.9% |
| St. Petersburg | 69.9% |
| Florida | 68.4% |
| United States | 62.6% |
| Clearwater | 57.0% |
The gap is closing. Fiber stood at 35.3% in June 2022 and 51.4%3 in December 2025. The gain of 5.6 percentage points in the latest six months ranks tied for 37th highest among large cities, ahead of Florida's 3.5 percentage points over the same period. Frontier's network is nearly the whole story, at 54.5% of locations. Spectrum reports fiber at 1.8% and Tillman Fiber at 0.8%, so two or more fiber networks meet at only 0.1% of locations. The count of fiber companies, 51 against 22 in 2022, overstates the choice: most of them report fiber at a handful of locations.
Copper left faster than fiber arrived
When the FCC published its first National Broadband Map, with data for mid-2022, DSL over phone lines was reported at about half of Clearwater's locations, 47.8%2. The December 2025 filings cut that to 0.1%3, and the June 2026 data leave DSL at just 45 locations. Florida still reports DSL at 43.5%1 of its locations.
Source: FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2026. Share of broadband serviceable locations where at least one provider reports the technology, at any speed; a location can have several. Satellite is reported almost everywhere and is left out.
Show the numbers
| Technology | Clearwater | Florida |
|---|---|---|
| Fiber | 57.0% | 68.4% |
| Cable | 95.5% | 87.4% |
| DSL (copper) | 0.1% | 43.5% |
| Licensed fixed wireless (incl. 5G home) | 88.6% | 91.4% |
| Unlicensed fixed wireless | 0.0% | 1.8% |
Source: FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2022; FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of December 31, 2025; FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2026. Shares of broadband serviceable locations in each FCC release (latest revision of each); the small number is the change in percentage points since June 30, 2022. The FCC's count of locations is updated with each release, so shares are compared rather than counts.
Show the numbers
| Measure | June 30, 2022 | December 31, 2025 | June 30, 2026 | Change (points) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DSL available | 47.8% | 0.1% | 0.1% | −47.6 pts |
| Fiber available | 35.3% | 51.4% | 57.0% | 21.7 pts |
| Licensed fixed wireless | 92.5% | 90.4% | 88.6% | −3.9 pts |
| Three or more wired choices | 34.9% | 49.3% | 54.9% | 20.0 pts |
The two lines did not trade one for one. Over four years DSL fell by 47.6 percentage points while fiber rose by 21.7 percentage points1: the copper share shrank more than twice as much as the fiber share grew. Wired choice did not fall with it; both cable networks still cover nearly the whole city. Why a provider stops listing a technology is not something the filings explain.
Gigabit downloads, fast uploads only on fiber
All three large wired networks advertise a gigabit download: Spectrum up to 1 Gbps, WOW! up to 1.2 Gbps, Frontier up to 7 Gbps. A 1 Gbps download is therefore advertised at 95.7% of locations. Uploads separate them. Cable plans pair gigabit downloads with much smaller uploads. Gigabit service that also uploads at 100 Mbps or faster, the 1,000/100 benchmark the FCC tracks, reaches 57.0% of Clearwater's locations, exactly its fiber share, while across Florida it reaches 76.9%. A download of 2 Gbps or more is the fastest advertised option at 55.3%1 of locations, against 34.8%2 in the 2022 map. All of these speeds are the ceilings providers advertise in their filings; none is a test result.
Source: FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2026. Maximum advertised download speed (Mbps) of any wired or fixed wireless offer at the location, as reported by providers to the FCC; satellite excluded. Advertised, not measured.
Show the numbers
| Area | Under 25 Mbps or none | 25–99 | 100–249 | 250–499 | 500–939 | 940–1,999 | 2,000 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearwater | 1.7% | 0.9% | 1.7% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 40.4% | 55.3% |
| St. Petersburg | 0.8% | 0.5% | 1.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 27.9% | 69.3% |
| Florida | 1.4% | 1.2% | 0.7% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 25.3% | 70.8% |
The wireless carriers moved in
4 companies list licensed fixed wireless (the FCC category that holds 5G home internet) in Clearwater, together covering 88.6%1 of locations. Their footprints are broad; their 100/20 Mbps footprints are not:
- T-Mobile lists 78.8%, but only 23.1% at 100/20 Mbps or more.
- AT&T, absent from the city in the 2022 filings and still without a wired network here, now lists wireless home service at 67.7%; it reaches 100/20 Mbps at 3.6%.
- Verizon more than doubled its reported footprint since 2022, to 9,449 locations (28.7%), and advertises up to 1 Gbps; 100/20 Mbps is reported at 11.8%.
- A local operator is smaller: Rapid Systems, 1.4% with a ceiling of 50 Mbps1.
A cell sector has finite capacity, so a carrier may turn away one address while accepting the next, and wireless footprints shift from filing to filing. Wireless service at 100/20 Mbps covered 43.8%3 of Clearwater's locations in the December 2025 data and covers 33.1%1 in June 2026.
Subscriptions trail the wiring
Availability is one question; what people pay for is another, and it comes from a different source. The 2025 Census survey, which asks households rather than mapping locations, puts Clearwater's share of households with any broadband subscription at 91.9% (margin of error ±2.5 percentage points). Florida's is 94.7%, and by point estimate Clearwater is tied for 36th lowest among large cities. Home wired plans (cable, fiber or DSL) account for 77.4% of households (±2.9 percentage points); 11.0% rely only on a cellular data plan, and 8.0% pay for no internet service at all (±2.5 percentage points), compared with 13.9% (±3.3 percentage points5) in the 2019 survey. 4.5%4 of households report no computer. So although nearly every address has two wired providers, roughly one household in five has no wired home plan.
Source: FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2026; Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2025 1-year detailed tables. Availability is a share of locations as of June 30, 2026 (FCC); subscriptions are a share of households from the American Community Survey, 2025 (whiskers: 90% margin of error). Different units and dates: read the gap as a sign, not an exact number.
Show the numbers
| Measure | Share | MOE |
|---|---|---|
| Wired 100/20 Mbps available (FCC, share of locations) | 95.7% | |
| Households subscribing to cable, fiber or DSL (Census) | 77.4% | ±2.9 |
| Households relying only on a cellular data plan | 11.0% | ±2.2 |
| Households with no internet subscription | 8.0% | ±2.5 |
Clearwater sits in Pinellas County, where 86.2%1 of locations have two or more wired providers at 100/20 Mbps, more than in any other of Florida's 676 counties; the Florida page has the county map. St. Petersburg and Tampa are covered on their own pages.
Questions and answers
What internet providers are available in Clearwater, Florida?
Three companies run wired networks across most of the city: Spectrum (95.5% of locations, cable with some fiber), WOW! (91.4%, cable) and Frontier (54.6%1, almost all fiber). T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon report fixed wireless home internet, Tillman Fiber reports fiber at a small share, and HughesNet, Starlink and Viasat report satellite service citywide. Figures are as of June 30, 2026.
Is fiber internet available in Clearwater?
Fiber is reported at 57.0% of Clearwater's locations as of June 30, 2026, up from 35.3%2 in June 2022. Frontier accounts for nearly all of it (54.5% of locations). Across Florida the share is 68.4% and nationally 62.6%1.
How many internet providers are in Clearwater?
6 wired providers report service somewhere in the city, against 32 in 2022, and 10 report any non-satellite service. At one address the count is smaller: a location has on average 2.42 wired providers offering 100/20 Mbps, and 54.9%1 of locations have three or more.
Is 5G home internet available in Clearwater?
T-Mobile reports fixed wireless home internet at 78.8% of locations, AT&T at 67.7% and Verizon at 28.7%1. Each offers 100/20 Mbps at a much smaller share, and carriers decide eligibility address by address.
Checking one address in Clearwater
The figures on this page describe the whole area. Which providers report service at a single home or apartment is shown only on the FCC's own map: search the address at broadbandmap.fcc.gov. If a provider is listed there but cannot actually connect you within ten business days, or the location is missing or misplaced, the map has a button to file a challenge; providers must respond, and corrections flow into later releases. Prices and plans are not part of the FCC data: each provider must show them on its broadband facts label at the point of sale.
More on internet in Florida
The state picture, county by county: internet in Florida. Other large cities in the state: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Port St. Lucie, St. Petersburg, Cape Coral, Hialeah, Tallahassee, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines and Hollywood. Compare Clearwater with any other city or state in the comparison tool.
Sources
- FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2026; Availability as of June 30, 2026; released November 10, 2026. broadbandmap.fcc.gov
- FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of June 30, 2022; Availability as of June 30, 2022; released May 10, 2024. broadbandmap.fcc.gov
- FCC, National Broadband Map, data as of December 31, 2025; Availability as of December 31, 2025; released November 3, 2026. broadbandmap.fcc.gov
- Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2025 1-year detailed tables; 2025 (calendar-year sample); released October 29, 2026. api.census.gov
- Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2019 1-year detailed tables; 2019. api.census.gov
- Census Bureau, Cartographic boundary file cb_2025_us_county_5m. www2.census.gov
Margins of error (±) are at the 90% confidence level. A difference is called significant only when it passes the Census Bureau's test at that level. How every figure is built: methodology. Found an error? Write to [email protected]; corrections are listed on the updates page.