Internet Market
In Illinois

The sixth largest population in the United States, with Chicago as its largest city, and the home for Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, two major league baseball teams, and where Michael Jordan made history playing for the Chicago Bulls. This is Illinois, the largest gross domestic product of the U.S.

The state is also the 6th position on the state broadband access ranking, and about 62.2% of Illinois’ population has access to a wired internet plan that costs equal to or less than $60 per month.

In fact, the percentage of citizens with access to low-priced internet plans is higher than the nationwide scenario (51.5%).

Over 94% of the citizens have access to wired broadband with speeds of 25 Mbps or faster, but the average state-wide speed is 179 Mbps.

Even though the state has 353 internet providers, 334,000 people still do not have access to any wired providers at all.

When it comes to high-speed internet access, 93.9% of the residents have access to broadband 100 Mbps or even faster, and 88.1% of them have access to one gigabit.

Wireline service is also available for 97.5% of Illinoisans, while cable service is available for 92.6% of them and DSL service for 93.1%.

This number drops significantly when we look at optical fiber, which is only available to 21.4% of the population.

Let's take a look at the four top cities of Illinois (Chicago, Aurora, Rockford, and Naperville).

We are looking at the most populous city of Illinois, the third-most populous city in the United States, with a population of more than 2 million people, and also the home of former United State President Barack Obama.

Chicago is the most important city of the Chicago metropolitan area, also called Chicagoland, which is actually one of the 40 largest urban areas in the world and has 9.6 million people.

The city is well known for having an amazing nightlife, vibrant jazz clubs, renowned theater companies, and, for that, attracts tourists from all over the world. It is also where the University of Chicago, one of the world's top ten universities, is.

Few people in the city do not have access to the internet: statistics show that only 0.8% of consumers in Chicago, around 21 thousand people, only have access to one or none wired internet providers available at their address.

Fiber internet, which is generally the fastest and most reliable internet service, is available to about 25% of Chicago residents.

Let's take a look at the top internet providers in the city.

As we can notice, Viasat and HughesNet are the two main providers in Chicago when it comes to availability, even though they don’t offer the best speed.

If what you are looking for is speed, you should check AT&T Internet, with a max download speed of 940 Mbps and fiber, or Xfinity, that reaches 1200 Mbps. Both of them are available in most parts of the city (97.5% and 98.8% respectively).

In fact, AT&T Internet is the best internet options for Chicagoans, alongside Xfinity, RCN and WOW!.

EarthLink also has fiber optic-based services options, and it offers a good maximum speed, which reaches 940 Mbps.

When it comes to cheapest internet plans, AT&T and Xfinity offer packages that start at $30 (lower than 100 Mbps).

In 1881, Aurora was the first city in the United States to implement an electric street lighting system. From then on, it was known as the "City of Lights".

The second most populous city in Illinois, just after Chicago, Aurora’s city limits have expanded into Kendall, DuPage and Will counties. In fact, the city has grown a lot since the 1960s and was ranked as the 46th fastest growing city with a population of over 100,000 from 2000 to 2009.

Only 1,000 people in Aurora, about 0.5% of the population, only have access to one or none wired internet providers available at their address.

Among the 27 internet service providers in the city, 13 of them offer residential broadband. The city also offers the three basic internet options, with fiber, cable and DSL. While cable or DSL networks represent 99.47% of the internet in the city, fiber has a coverage of 32.66%.

Let's take a look at the top internet providers in the city.

As we could see in other cities, Viasat and HughesNet are the two main providers in Aurora when it comes to availability, even though they don’t offer the best speed.

Even if they don't reach 100%, other companies offer good coverage of the territory. This is the case of Xfinity, which in addition to offering optical fiber is in 97% of the territory and has a max download speed of 940 Mbps.

Right behind it is AT&T Internet, which reaches a speed of 940 Mbps and is also found with some ease, as it is available for 97%.

When it comes to optical fiber, in addition to AT&T Internet, two other companies offer this service: Metronet, which reaches 1000 Mbps, and EarthLink, with a max download speed of 940 Mbps.

Outside of the Chicago metropolitan area, this is the largest city in Illinois, and also the fourth-largest city in the state.

According to the 2019 census, Rockford has a population of more than 145,000.

Rockford is the 171st most-connected city in Illinois, and 86% of the residents are serviced by more than one wired provider. Nevertheless, 14.3% of consumers in the city, that means 27,000 people, only have access to one or none wired internet providers available at their address.

When it comes to average download speed, Rockford has 204 Mbps, the largest among the top five cities in the state.

Let's take a look at the top internet providers in the city.

The first thing to notice is that none of the eight most popular internet providers in Rockford offers fiber optics, which is considered to be the most steady and fastest internet.

When it comes to availability, once again Viasat and HughesNet compete with each other for 100% of the region.

If what you're looking for is high max download speed, it's worth checking out Xfinity's plans, which are available to 97.2% of citizens and reach 1200 Mbps. All other companies offer plans that reach a maximum of 100 Mbps.

Naperville is a Chicago’s suburb founded in 1831. According to the 2020 census, its population is more than 149 thousand, which makes it the 4th most populous city in Illinois.

When it comes to the internet, Naperville is the 17th most connected city in the state, and only 0.7% of citizens, nearly 1,000 people, only have access to one or none wired internet providers available at their address. It means that almost 100% of the residents there are serviced by more than one wired provider.

The average download speed of the city is 167.7 Mbps, higher than cities such as Aurora.

Let's take a look at the top internet providers in the city.

As we can see, Naperville has more than one fiber optic option (AT&T Internet, Metronet and EarthLink).

When it comes to max download speed, Xfinity offers the highest, which comes in at 1200 Mbps. Still, companies like AT&T Internet itself, WOW!, Metronet and EarthLink offer high internet speeds.