![]() More notably, T-Mobile showed an increase of 173% between 20. These higher numbers reflect how fiber internet providers in general have pivoted away from antiquated services like DSL in favor of building up their fiber networks.Ĭable providers like Mediacom and Cox have also shown drastic rises in the number of users with 100 Mbps speeds or faster. Windstream and Frontier-which both offer a mix of DSL and fiber-optic internet services-saw the biggest increase in users with 100 Mbps speeds between 20. Our speed test results suggest that fiber internet providers have seen some of the biggest gains in speeds. In some cases, though, your internet provider may be intentionally throttling your Wi-Fi to slow it down. There is nothing necessarily nefarious going on here, it’s just a fact of internet life.Īdvertised internet speeds are theoretically possible in lab conditions, but you aren’t going to see them most of the time-especially if you are using Wi-Fi over a router, since factors like router type and the fluctuation of wireless signals invariably bring down your speeds. One study from November 2022 found that internet users with gigabit plans (940–1,200 Mbps) in actuality got median download speeds in the range of 360–373 Mbps. advertised speeds-why are your speeds slower than what you pay for?įor almost all internet users, the actual tested internet speeds they receive are often much slower than their internet plan’s maximum advertised speeds.Īlthough you may be paying for an internet plan that technically can hit 100 Mbps, for example, it’s likely that you regularly get download speeds below that mark in a speed test. Rosenworcel says the FCC’s broadband standard should eventually be raised to 1,000 Mbps download/500 Mbps upload speeds, although she didn’t set a specific timeline. 2022: FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel calls to raise the standard to 100 Mbps download/20 Mbps upload.2015: FCC raises the standard to 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload.2010: FCC sets a minimum speed standard of 4 Mbps download/1 Mbps upload.It also helps the FCC identify parts of the country that are underserved and that need funding for better internet. Setting baseline speed standards for broadband internet gives the FCC a benchmark to guide decisions on which internet companies qualify for government subsidies. That rule has been in place since 2015, but it’s been updated before and it may be raised again. ![]() That said, you will start to notice high ping if you're trying to make split-second decisions in an online multiplayer game, and it can also cause annoying delays during video call conversations.A quick explainer on how the FCC defines broadband speedsĬurrently, the federal agency defines broadband internet as any connection that delivers minimum download speeds of 25 Mbps and upload speeds of 3 Mbps. In most cases, ping differences are pretty minor, enough so that you won't notice them without running a speed test. Your ping might also rise slightly if you're connecting through something like a mesh router or a range extender, where your data needs to make multiple wireless jumps before reaching the modem. Ping will go up if you're connecting to a server that's very far away, or if there's some sort of interference somewhere in the connection. Think of it like a round-trip flight time for your internet connection. Simply put, the ping number is the time that it took for your device to send a signal to whatever distant server you connected to during the speed test, and then receive a response. In addition to showing you the current upload and download speeds for whatever device you're running the test on, most internet speed tests will also give you a figure called ping, which is a latency measurement measured in milliseconds. That's not surprising, but it might make a slight impact on your results depending on the strength of your connection at the time of the test. You can even run the Ookla speed test on an Apple TV.Īll of that said, Ookla does display banner ads while you run basic speed tests. In addition to the website and the smartphone apps, Ookla also has apps that you can run on Windows or on Mac. Most recently, the service released a video-specific speed test that measures your network's ability to handle 4K video streams. ![]() Ookla's done a good job of keeping up with the times by adding new features and capabilities over the years. Incidentally, Ookla's speed test is also the one we use when we're testing Wi-Fi routers. Popularity aside, we like Ookla for having everything a basic user needs from a speed test: accuracy, the ability to view your speed test history (when you create an account), a wide array of servers to connect to, and even a handy app for speed testing from your Android or iOS device. One of our favorites is the Ookla speed test, which has a strong reputation for consistency and for being one of the first speed tests on the web.
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