WASHINGTON — Americans lack real choices among providers of high-speed Internet service, with fewer than one in four homes having access to two or more providers of the broadband speeds that are quickly becoming “table stakes” in modern communications, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday.

The chairman, Tom Wheeler, said in a speech that the F.C.C. planned to promote more choices and protect competition, because a lack of adequate consumer choice inhibits innovation, investment and economic benefits.

“There is an inverse relationship between competition and the kind of broadband performance that consumers are increasingly demanding,” Mr. Wheeler said. “This is not tolerable.”

While about 80 percent of homes have access to a wired broadband connection that provides service at 25 megabits per second or greater, an overwhelming majority of those have no choice among providers, Mr. Wheeler said, citing statistics from the Commerce Department’s State Broadband Initiative.