The Fastest Internet Service Providers In The Country, Charted
There's nothing better than sitting down in front of your laptop, opening your browser and surfing the internet at blazingly fast speed. Unfortunately, that's not a reality for many Americans, according to a new report from broadband testing company Ookla. The report, which is based on 115 million user-initiated broadband speed-testing sessions at Speedtest.net, found that Comcast's XFINITY has the fastest average broadband speed. (The "Speed Scores" on the chart don't represent pure network speed in megabits per second; rather, "90% of the final Speed Score is attributed to download speed and the remaining 10% to upload speed," according to Ookla.)
Of course, given the lack of competition among internet service providers in many areas, many consumers don't have the option of switching to a faster ISP. Perhaps because many ISPs function as de facto monopolies in certain regions, broadband speed varies a great deal from state to state, "with the fastest state (New Jersey) coming in 139.8% faster than the slowest (Maine)," according to Ookla.
You can find an interactive version of the above map and a list of the fastest ISPs in major cities in Ookla's full report.
