Internet access in Washoe County, NV, by the numbers

Washoe is the big county: Reno, Sparks and the north valleys hold most of the people, and the Census numbers for the city are close to the numbers for Nevada. The interesting rows are the smaller ones. A few ZIPs and valleys report satellite and phone-only service at three and four times the county rate.

Highlights

• Satellite: 7.4 percent of Washoe households, 14,719 of them, against 7.6 percent for Nevada (ACS 2020-2024, B28002).
• Highest satellite share by ZIP: 89510 (Palomino Valley) at 25.1 percent of 610 households, then 89508 (Cold Springs) at 14.4 percent.
• Highest no-subscription share by ZIP: 89442 (Wadsworth) at 17.3 percent and 89512 (Reno) at 15.2 percent, which is 1,736 households.
• Businesses: 14,199 establishments with 209,307 employees (U.S. Census Bureau, 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

• Palomino Valleyabout 25%
• Verdiabout 24%
• Golden Valleyabout 14%
• Lemmon Valley13.7%
• Spanish Springs12.3%
• Sun Valley9.9%
• Sparks8.6%
• Mogulabout 8%
• Stead7.8%
• Cold Springs6.3%
• Wadsworthabout 6%
• Reno5.8%
• Washoe Valley3.1%

Ranked among places with reliable estimates only.

How does Washoe County compare with Nevada?

The county is close to the state on every line. Washoe reports 78.6 percent of households on a cable, fiber or DSL subscription against 76.6 percent for Nevada, 9.4 percent on a phone data plan only against 11.8 percent, 7.4 percent on satellite against 7.6 percent, and 5.6 percent with no subscription against 5.3 percent (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B28002). The county work-from-home share is 12.6 percent of 248,976 workers, and the mean commute is 22.5 minutes.

Which Washoe places rely most on satellite or phone data?

Among places with reliable estimates, Lemmon Valley reports 13.7 percent satellite, Spanish Springs 12.3 percent and Sun Valley 9.9 percent. The small places run higher: Palomino Valley, with about 1,457 residents, reports about 25 percent satellite and about 31 percent on a phone plan only, and Verdi reports about 24 percent satellite (ACS 2020-2024, B28002). Small places carry wide margins of error, so we do not rank them against each other.

By ZIP, 89510, 89508, 89704, 89441 and 89439 all sit above 10 percent satellite. Those ZIPs are mostly the valley and foothill communities around the urban core. The matching pages are 89510 and 89508.

Where do the most households have no subscription?

In share, 89442 (Wadsworth) is first at 17.3 percent, but it holds only about 318 households. In headcount the largest groups are in Reno and Sparks ZIPs: 89502 with 1,915 households, 89512 with 1,736, 89431 with 1,311, 89509 with 1,177 and 89506 with 1,034 (ACS 2020-2024, B28002). The ACS counts households with no subscription of any kind, whether or not a provider could reach them, and it does not say why. The homes without internet page ranks all 35 ZIPs.

What does Washoe work from home look like?

ZIP 89511 reports 21.0 percent of workers working from home, 89521 reports 20.1 percent, 89519 reports 18.6 percent and 89509 reports 18.1 percent, against 3.7 percent in 89512 and 4.4 percent in 89433 (ACS 2020-2024, B08301). The spread is wide enough that two Reno households on the same plan can need quite different upload speeds. See the work-from-home page for every county.

What is planned in Washoe County?

Nevada's provisional High Speed NV plan lists 17 projects in Washoe County, about 27.4 million dollars in all, led by a Hot Spot Broadband project at Spanish Springs (estimated end January 2027) and Rural Telephone Company at Lemmon Valley (estimated end December 2029). Other subgrantees named for Washoe include Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, NV Bell Telephone, DTS Fiber, Amazon Kuiper and SpaceX (Nevada OSIT BEAD Final Proposal data, read 10/15/26). NTIA approved the revised Nevada plan on January 8, 2026, and every project is provisional and subject to change. High Desert is not a subgrantee. See the Washoe County BEAD page.

What does this mean for a tower-based option?

A fixed wireless link depends on a clear path from a tower to the building. The county numbers tell you where people have already looked past a wire, not where a tower reaches. Send the address through the address check and a person looks at the path from the nearest tower, then calls you back.

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

For Washoe 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 161,538 broadband serviceable locations. The largest land-based rows: Spectrum, cable, 154,009 locations (top tier up to 1,000 Mbps down); Hot Spot Broadband, unlicensed fixed wireless, 138,954 locations (top tier up to 100 Mbps down); T-Mobile, licensed fixed wireless, 129,517 locations (top tier up to 100 Mbps down); Net NV, unlicensed fixed wireless, 126,226 locations (top tier up to 1,000 Mbps down); Verizon, licensed fixed wireless, 91,108 locations (top tier up to 300 Mbps down); AT&T, copper (DSL), 87,460 locations (top tier up to 100 Mbps down).

Read as one county, the newest filings put a wired 100/20 tier at 158,376 of 161,538 locations in Washoe County and a fixed wireless 100/20 tier at 154,174, from 13 fixed wireless filers. The overlap is large; the 2,860 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; separately, 170 had no land-based filing at 25/3 or better, leaving satellite as the only reported option. The FCC counts broadband serviceable locations in Washoe County, which are buildings, not households or customers, and each row is the provider's own report.

How do income and age shape the Washoe County numbers?

Two newer Census tables add who is behind the Washoe County subscription numbers. There, 76.2 percent of households earning under $35,000 a year report broadband, against 96.6 percent of those at $75,000 or more (table B28004; Nevada 81.5 percent and 96.6 percent). Among residents 65 and over, 88.2 percent live in a home with broadband and 5.8 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 15.5 percent of units, and housing from before 1990 48.9 percent (table B25034). All Washoe 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.