Though some pockets of the US have a competitive market for ultra-fast broadband, a new government report shows that Internet service of at least 100Mbps is limited, and where it exists there is usually just one provider that offers it.

Fifty-nine percent of the US population can buy service of at least 100Mbps download speed, according to the Department of Commerce report released yesterday. But only eight percent can choose from at least two 100Mbps providers, and just one percent can choose from three.

Further, “only 3 percent of the population had 1Gbps or greater available; none had two or more ISPs at that speed,” the report said. It’s not exactly “none”—data in the appendix shows a fraction of one percent of Americans can choose from multiple gigabit providers. This is beginning to change. For example, AT&T and Google are now offering gigabit service in Austin, Texas. The Commerce report is a bit outdated, using data from December 2013.

At the lower end, the report found that 98 percent of Americans can get at least 3Mbps, while 88 percent can choose from at least two providers, and 56 percent can choose from at least three. Two percent of Americans had no options even at 3Mbps.

The statistics include wireline broadband services such as DSL, cable, and fiber. They also include terrestrial fixed wireless Internet service, but not satellite or mobile cellular service.

The numbers differ slightly from wireline-only figures previously quoted by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler. That report showed the state of competition for speeds up to 50Mbps only. With 100Mbps and gigabit speeds, the new Commerce report helps detail the market for very high-speed service.

While most Americans wouldn’t saturate a gigabit pipe today, there is demand for it if the price is right. Google Fiber has seen high interest in its gigabit service that costs $70 a month. Cable networks can technically support gigabit speeds but generally top out at 100Mbps or so. Comcast uses fiber to deliver its 505Mbps service, which costs $400 a month.

Many small providers offer gigabit service, with municipal governments often leading the way.

The latest company to promise fiber-based gigabit service is cellular provider Ting, which just bought a small ISP in Charlottesville, Virginia, and plans to offer gigabit service for less than $100 a month.

More than one in four US households do not have a broadband subscription, with 29 percent of the non-broadband households citing cost as the primary roadblock, the Department of Commerce said. A lack of competition contributes to high prices.

"Competitive market forces—the ability for a broadband service subscriber to switch ISPs—are powerful disincentives for ISPs to exercise market power," the report said. "Increased market power by sellers often results in higher prices for consumers. In addition, increased market power may adversely affect customers in other ways, such as reductions in product quality or variety, service, or innovation."

For the past few years, the FCC has defined "broadband" as 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream, but is in the process of updating the definition to 10Mbps down and 1Mbps up.

The Department of Commerce report said that "download speeds up to 10 Mbps may be less than optimal for increasingly popular higher-bandwidth applications such as streaming video and audio and multi-player online games, especially in households with multiple simultaneous Internet users."

The report also included data on the cellular market, where top speeds are lower but competition is greater: