Wireless internet providers scored 645 out of 1,000 in overall customer satisfaction, against 560 for wired providers, in the 2026 J.D. Power U.S. Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study released October 8, 2026. The 85-point advantage is eight points narrower than in 2025. T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and Google Fiber took the top spots in the rankings.

The study, published from Washington on October 15, captures a U.S. broadband market in which fixed wireless access has become the default choice for millions of households. It also captures one in transition. Wired providers improved their scores this year, largely on the strength of better digital tools and stronger perceived value for the price paid, and that improvement is what closed part of the gap.

What does the narrowing gap actually mean?

The headline number still favors wireless. But the direction of travel matters more for operators planning the next investment cycle. Wireless internet providers led on satisfaction in 2025 as well, and the eight-point contraction suggests wired operators — particularly fiber players — have stopped losing ground on the customer-experience metrics that drive churn.

Two factors did the work, according to the study:

• Digital tools. Wired providers improved the self-service and account-management experiences that had lagged behind wireless rivals.
• Value for money. Perceived price-to-performance ratios rose for wired services, the single most sensitive metric in a market where promotional pricing expires and bills climb.

The contrast is roughly the difference between a subscriber who manages a plan from a phone app and one who still calls a support line. Wireless carriers, built around app-first retail relationships, have held that structural edge. Wired providers are now closing it.

Who won what?

J.D. Power's rankings placed T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and Google Fiber — GFiber — at the top of their respective segments. The result tracks with the broader commercial picture: T-Mobile and Verizon have built large fixed wireless access businesses on 5G networks, while AT&T and Google Fiber compete on the wired side with fiber builds.

The study measures overall customer satisfaction across the full base of U.S. internet service providers, not a single technology. That makes the wireless-versus-wired split the most consequential finding. Fixed wireless access, once dismissed as a rural stopgap, now outperforms wired service on the satisfaction measure that J.D. Power's methodology weights across service, cost, and experience factors.

Commercial reality behind the scores

The numbers carry weight beyond bragging rights. Satisfaction scores correlate closely with churn, and churn decides which operators can sustain the capital spending that U.S. broadband requires. Fiber builders are committing tens of billions of dollars to reach new homes; fixed wireless operators are expanding capacity on 5G spectrum they already hold. Both camps now have evidence to take to investors.

For wireless providers, the study confirms the model works. For wired providers, the improvement in value scores suggests that pricing strategy — not network quality alone — was the weak point, and that it is fixable.

The pattern will be tested again in the 2027 edition. If wired providers keep improving digital tools and value at the current rate, the satisfaction gap J.D. Power measured this year could narrow again within the next twelve months.