Internet access in Storey County, NV, by the numbers

A county with about 4,140 people does not produce many rows. The county line, Virginia City on the mountain and Lockwood on the river are the whole table, plus the ZIP for Virginia City. The numbers are small enough that every one of them carries a wide margin, and the sensible way to read them is by direction.

Highlights

• Satellite: 22.5 percent of households, 426 of them, against 7.6 percent for Nevada (ACS 2020-2024, B28002).
• Work from home: 17.5 percent of workers, the highest of the six counties, with a mean commute of 38.7 minutes.
• Virginia City: about 26 percent satellite and about 18 percent no subscription on 336 households.
• Businesses: 159 establishments with 13,213 employees (County Business Patterns 2023).

The data

U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B28002 (internet subscriptions), retrieved 2026-10-02. Small places (under about 2,000 people) are rounded and read as about; a 0% or 100% there is a sampling artifact and is not printed. Households can report more than one type.

Satellite share by place, ranked

• Virginia Cityabout 26%
• Lockwood8.1%

Ranked among places with reliable estimates only.

What is the Storey County row?

Of 1,892 households, 66.8 percent report a cable, fiber or DSL subscription, 22.5 percent satellite, 10.8 percent a phone plan only and 4.1 percent no subscription, about 78 households (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B28002). Only 0.4 percent report no computer. The county has 19.0 percent manufactured homes, and 33.2 percent of residents are 65 or over.

Why does the Lockwood row look different?

Lockwood has no Census place of its own, so its row uses ZIP 89434 as a stand-in. That ZIP has 10,973 households, nearly six times the whole county, and it takes in part of Sparks. The Lockwood row reports 8.1 percent satellite, close to Nevada's 7.6 percent, which tells you about the ZIP and little about Storey County's hills. The ACS gives no breakdown of Storey County's own households inside that ZIP.

What is Virginia City reporting?

Virginia City has 644 residents and 336 households. About 57 percent of them report cable, fiber or DSL, about 26 percent satellite and about 18 percent no subscription, and 19.3 percent of workers work from home (ACS 2020-2024, B28002 and B08301). ZIP 89440 gives nearly the same picture: 19.1 percent satellite, 13.3 percent none, 36.4 percent of residents 65 or over. Wide margins apply to every figure here.

Why is the commute so long?

Storey County's mean commute is 38.7 minutes, the longest of the six counties, and the county has more jobs than residents: 13,213 employees at 159 establishments (County Business Patterns 2023). ZIP 89437, the industrial center, alone counts 10,489 of those employees (ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023). The industrial center business page and the commuters guide cover each side.

What is planned in Storey County?

Nevada's provisional High Speed NV plan lists four projects, about 6.0 million dollars in all. NV Bell Telephone holds the largest, Steamboat, with an estimated end in September 2029. Amazon Kuiper holds Patrick and a Wadsworth reservation project, and SpaceX holds Six Mile Canyon (Nevada OSIT BEAD Final Proposal data, read 10/15/26). The list is subject to change, and High Desert is not a subgrantee. See the Storey County BEAD page.

How should a table this small be read?

With care. A county of 1,892 households means each percentage point is only about 19 households, and the Census reports a margin of error that can be several points. When Storey County reads 22.5 percent satellite, the honest reading is that satellite is common here, roughly one household in five, not that the true number is exactly 22.5. The same goes for Virginia City, where 336 households make every row an estimate.

We therefore round the small places, leave out any 0 or 100 percent, and do not rank two small places against each other. The ZIP rows for the larger places nearby are steadier, and they are on the satellite reliance page.

What is High Desert's part in this?

High Desert is a locally owned fixed wireless provider, open since August 2002 according to its Google listing, with three plans: Bronze at $50 a month with up to 500 Mbps down, Silver at $75 with up to 800 Mbps and Gold at $99 with up to 1 Gig, all with up to 200 Mbps up and no contracts (hdiss.net, read 10/15/26). Whether a tower reaches a house on the Comstock or in the canyon is a question for the address check. Terrain can help or block it.

What reported service in 2021?

The FCC's June 2021 Form 477 filing lists satellite companies in roughly 1,000 blocks each, Net NV fixed wireless in 827 blocks, and smaller counts for Charter cable and AT&T (FCC Form 477, June 2021, historical). The Form 477 page shows the full list.

What does the FCC's December 2025 data add for Storey County?

For Storey County, the FCC Broadband Data Collection replaces the 2021 Form 477 snapshot with location-level filings. As of December 31, 2025 (files read October 16, 2026), the county has 2,278 broadband serviceable locations. The largest land-based rows: Hot Spot Broadband, unlicensed fixed wireless, 2,277 locations (top tier up to 100 Mbps down); Preferred Networks, unlicensed fixed wireless, 1,259 locations (top tier up to 512 Mbps down); T-Mobile, licensed fixed wireless, 1,201 locations (top tier up to 100 Mbps down); AT&T, copper (DSL), 1,050 locations (top tier up to 10 Mbps down); AT&T, licensed fixed wireless, 1,036 locations (top tier up to 100 Mbps down); Verizon, licensed fixed wireless, 857 locations (top tier up to 300 Mbps down).

Read as one county, the newest filings put a wired 100/20 tier at 886 of 2,278 locations in Storey County and a fixed wireless 100/20 tier at 2,277, from 9 fixed wireless filers. The overlap is large; the 1,391 locations where a fixed wireless filing stood alone at that level are where a tower link fills a gap on the FCC's own map. The FCC counts broadband serviceable locations in Storey County, which are buildings, not households or customers, and each row is the provider's own report.

How do income and age shape the Storey County numbers?

Two newer Census tables add who is behind the Storey County subscription numbers. There, 87.9 percent of households earning under $35,000 a year report broadband, against 96.1 percent of those at $75,000 or more (table B28004; Nevada 81.5 percent and 96.6 percent). Among residents 65 and over, 90.7 percent live in a home with broadband and 0.6 percent live in a home with no computer (table B28005; Nevada 88.1 percent and 5.7 percent). Housing built in 2010 or later is 7.8 percent of units, and housing from before 1990 51.6 percent (table B25034). All Storey County figures are from the Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, pulled October 16, 2026.

Method

Figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates (tables B28002, B28001, B08301, B25024, B01001 and B19013), retrieved 2026-10-02, and from County and ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023. They are survey estimates with margins of error. Places under about 2,000 people are rounded to whole percents and read as about; a 0 or 100 percent for a tiny place is left out as a sampling artifact. The ACS has no fixed wireless line, so a household on a tower link is counted under cable, fiber or DSL or under other service. The ACS asks about subscriptions, not about whether a provider could serve the address.