✦ Edited and fact-checked by Eric Chiu, our Tech Editor with over ten years of experience covering home and wireless internet technology.
unWired Broadband is a Fresno-based internet provider that has spent two decades beaming service from towers to farms, foothills, and small towns the big companies skipped.
Lately, it’s doing something new: pouring $10 million-plus per city into an actual fiber network under the brand NextGen Fiber. That makes Unwired two very different products wearing one name, and which one you can buy depends entirely on your address. Here’s how to tell them apart.
What is unWired?
unWired Broadband is a regional internet provider headquartered in Fresno, California, serving rural and underserved parts of Central and Northern California. The company styles its name with a lowercase u, which is why it shows up inconsistently across provider databases.
It started small and stayed local. Founded in 2003 with a single tower site near Clovis, unWired now covers roughly 17,000 to 19,000 square miles, stretching from north of Sacramento down to the base of the Grapevine.
The pitch has always been the same: serve the places DSL, cable, and fiber carriers ignored. That mission is baked into the infrastructure — its transmitters sit on communication towers, grain silos, water towers, and tall buildings, which tells you plenty about the terrain.
It’s also a fairly regional ISP by regional ISP standards. In congressional testimony, the company reported just over 29,000 customer connections — 80% residential, 20% business — with 228 employees. It’s a small company covering a very large map.
That said, unWired’s awards list is legitimately impressive for an operation of its size. The Wireless Internet Service Provider Association named unWired its Wireless Internet Service Provider of the Year in 2023, and the Fresno Bee’s People’s Choice awards have named it Best Internet Service Provider for four consecutive years, plus Best Customer Service in 2024 and 2025.
What services does unWired offer?
unWired sells connectivity and nothing else. There’s no TV package, no mobile line, and no bundle to negotiate — a narrow menu that’s either refreshing or limiting depending on what you came for.
Residential internet
- Fixed wireless service delivered to a receiver on your roof, with unlimited data and no contracts
- Plans advertised from $59.99/mo., with speeds and pricing set by your location
- The company advertises guaranteed speeds rather than “up to” figures
- A Refer-A-Friend program offers account credit for sending neighbors their way
NextGen Fiber
- unWired’s fiber division, marketed under its own brand and website
- Live or building in Coalinga, Parlier, Gustine, and Wasco, with residential and business plans
- Speeds vary sharply by city — Coalinga launched at up to 1 Gbps, while Wasco hit up to 5 Gbps
If fiber has reached your city, it’s the better product by a wide margin. See how it compares in our guide to the best fiber internet providers.
Business services
- Business internet on both fixed wireless and fiber, with custom-engineered plans
- Business continuity and redundancy, meaning a backup connection that takes over if your primary line drops
unWired internet plans and pricing
Let’s be upfront: unWired doesn’t publish a plan lineup. There’s a starting price and a phone number, and that’s it.
How unWired pricing actually works
- Plans start at $59.99/mo. That’s the floor, not a representative rate. What you’re quoted depends on where you live.
- Every quote is custom. unWired states that infrastructure, bandwidth, transport costs, and available capacity all affect pricing from area to area, so it directs shoppers to contact the company for a quote specific to their address.
- Included on every plan: unlimited data, no hidden charges, and no contracts. Speeds are advertised as guaranteed rather than theoretical maximums.
- Fiber cities are priced separately. NextGen Fiber runs its own pricing through its own site, and it’s generally the better value where it exists.
unWired availability and service areas
unWired operates in exactly one state. California is the whole map, concentrated in the Central Valley and reaching north past Sacramento.
- Fixed wireless is available over 200 towers across 17-plus counties, covering roughly 17,000 to 19,000 square miles. Recent expansion communities include Vacaville and surrounding Solano County, Isleton, Lost Hills, Orland, and Corning.
- NextGen Fiber reaches a whopping four cities in the Central Valley. Coalinga is fully deployed after an $11 million build covering more than 4,874 addresses, and now serves over 1,500 customers. Wasco followed with a $10 million project delivering up to 5 Gbps across nearly 6,000 addresses — the entire city. Parlier and Gustine round out the list.
unWired customer reviews and satisfaction
Sentiment on unWired splits along a clean line: customers who had no good alternative tend to love it, and customers comparing it to modern cable or fiber pricing tend to be frustrated.
What customers praise:
- Reaching an actual human on first contact, who explains services and process
- Installers who call ahead, arrive on time, work cleanly, then test and explain the system
- Long-term reliability — multiple reviewers report years without connectivity problems
- A dramatic upgrade over rural DSL, including one customer who traded weekend outages for consistent service
- Genuinely remote locations getting usable service, including a customer living on a boat
- 24/7 phone tech support, seven days a week
What customers complain about:
- Dollars per megabit, which is the dominant theme by a wide margin
- Legacy plans left in place while cheaper, faster options launched
- Repair waits of two to four days when service goes down
- Speeds falling short of expectations on some plans and towers
- Offboarding friction, including a report of equipment left mounted on a roof after cancellation
- No published pricing, which makes comparison shopping genuinely difficult
How unWired ranks: Independent review data is too thin to draw conclusions from — one major database shows a 5.00 out of 5 and another a 1.00 out of 5, each built on a single review.
unWired doesn’t appear in our internet customer satisfaction survey, which polled more than 8,000 customers nationally. With roughly 29,000 total connections, it can’t reach our respondent threshold — that’s a scale limitation, not a verdict. To see how the qualifying providers compare, check our ranking of the best internet providers.
What you need to know before signing up with unWired
You have to check your address for a real price
There is no online plan list. The $59.99 starting point tells you very little about what you’ll pay, because pricing is set by location, available capacity, and transport costs. Get your quote and your speed tier in writing before scheduling installation.
Ask which tower serves you
Fixed wireless performance depends on distance, line of sight, and how many customers share your tower. unWired caps subscribers per tower on purpose, so ask what’s actually being delivered on yours — and whether a tree between you and it is going to be a problem.
Sort out equipment removal upfront
The receiver mounts on your roof and stays company property. At least one customer has reported difficulty getting hardware removed after cancellation, which can block a new installer. Confirm the removal process before you sign, not after.
Check for fiber before you commit to wireless
NextGen Fiber is live or building in Coalinga, Parlier, Gustine, and Wasco, and the build is still expanding. If you’re in or near one of those cities, ask about fiber first — it’s a materially better product at comparable money.
Unwired FAQ
What is Unwired?
unWired Broadband is a Fresno-based internet provider serving rural and underserved parts of Central and Northern California since 2003. It delivers fixed wireless service from over 200 towers across 17-plus counties and operates a fiber division called NextGen Fiber in four Central Valley cities. It also sells business internet, redundancy services, and colocation from its own Fresno data center.
How much does Unwired internet cost?
Plans start at $59.99 per month, but unWired doesn't publish a full price list. Rates depend on your location, available network capacity, and local transport costs, so you'll need a custom quote for your address. Every plan includes unlimited data with no contracts and no hidden charges.
Is Unwired available in my area?
Only in California. Fixed wireless coverage spans roughly 17,000 to 19,000 square miles from north of Sacramento to the base of the Grapevine, while NextGen Fiber is limited to Coalinga, Parlier, Gustine, and Wasco. Because fixed wireless depends on line of sight and tower capacity, availability can differ between neighboring homes — check your specific address.
What's the difference between unWired fixed wireless and NextGen Fiber?
Fixed wireless sends your connection over the air from a nearby tower to a receiver mounted on your home, which makes it viable in rural areas where no cables run. NextGen Fiber runs a physical fiber line to your property, delivering faster and more consistent speeds — up to 1 Gbps in Coalinga and up to 5 Gbps in Wasco. Where fiber is available, it's the stronger option.
Does Unwired have data caps or contracts?
No. unWired advertises unlimited data with no contracts and no hidden charges across its plans, and it markets guaranteed speeds rather than "up to" maximums. Actual performance on fixed wireless still depends on your distance from the tower and line of sight.
CableTV.com editors created this article using original analysis and proprietary inputs, with AI tools assisting in drafting. The final content was reviewed and edited for accuracy and quality.
