There is a new web service supplier holding the championship belt. AT&T Fiber got here out on prime because the quickest fastened ISP within the US, registering a median obtain pace of just below 349 megabits per second in checks collected by Ookla from January by means of June of 2024. This information comes after Cox Communications nabbed first place within the pace check firm’s earlier two experiences within the latter half of 2023. So, what modified?
One main issue is that Ookla now tracks AT&T Fiber’s efficiency individually from AT&T Web, the corporate’s DSL providing, and AT&T Internet Air, its 5G fixed wireless home internet service. That transfer noticed AT&T Fiber register a median obtain pace of just below 349 megabits per second, which is sort of a bounce from the 245Mbps AT&T scored within the earlier report from the fourth quarter of 2023.
Total, AT&T Fiber led Ookla’s report with a 360.85 Pace Rating, a metric the corporate makes use of that considers a supplier’s obtain and add speeds. Verizon, which additionally boasts a fiber-optic web service with its Verizon Fios, was working nicely behind in second place with a Pace Rating of 269.47. Three cable web suppliers rounded out the highest 5: Cox, Xfinity and Spectrum.
In earlier years, the corporate would announce the outcomes of all the data it had gathered from the tens of millions of day by day buyer interactions with its Speedtest.net instrument each three months. That is the primary time Ookla has launched a half-year report, with the present assertion overlaying the primary six months of 2024 and giving perception into the efficiency of the web companies all of us more and more depend on.
Ookla is an internet speed-test supplier that collects information by way of its Speedtest.net instrument, which gathers insights from tens of millions of buyer makes use of of that pace check. CNET continuously makes use of these findings to assist inform our internet service provider reviews. We additionally use Ookla pace check information to assist evaluate and distinction web efficiency from metropolis to metropolis or state to state.
Why do these pace checks matter?
Each internet service provider needs to assert the title of America’s quickest ISP. It offers them bragging rights to shout about how they have the nation’s quickest obtain speeds. As not too long ago as Might of this yr, we wrote about how Spectrum was named the fastest ISP in the US (based mostly on an Opensignal report). So what does this all imply? As is commonly the case with house web service, many variables exist.
To be included in Ookla’s examine, an ISP should seem in 3% or extra of the check information collected through the six-month window. Some superfast regional suppliers — like Ziply Fiber, which offers a super-speedy 50 gigabit (or 50,000Mbps) plan — would possibly ship increased median obtain speeds than the suppliers proven above however do not attain sufficient households to satisfy Ookla’s mark for nationwide inclusion.
In CNET’s ISP opinions, we stress that whereas pace check information is useful and can provide a snapshot of your internet connection efficiency at any given second, it isn’t definitive or good. Many issues can have an effect on a pace check, together with whether or not or not you are utilizing Wi-Fi or a hardwired Ethernet connection, the time of day you are working the check and so forth.Â
Due to these elements, not everybody who makes use of AT&T Fiber can anticipate to expertise these speeds. Slightly, it is a benchmark of what a “typical” US buyer would possibly anticipate from that ISP. An Ookla spokesperson as soon as instructed CNET that the report goals to “extra precisely symbolize the standard efficiency that buyers really expertise on a community.”
It is tempting to have a look at experiences like these and assume the top-ranking firm is the very best web supplier throughout the nation. However that is not precisely the case. Whereas AT&T Fiber does rank extremely amongst our general ISP scores (and it acquired the very best rating amongst all ISPs within the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index report), it may not be accessible in your space, or there could possibly be a regional supplier, not represented in Ookla’s report, that may present a extra compelling cause for your enterprise. Obtain pace and pace check outcomes might be essential elements in your satisfaction with a broadband supplier, however they don’t seem to be the one factor.
