Skip to Main Content

FCC: ISPs Actually Delivering Advertised Broadband Speeds

Is your Internet service provider delivering on those advertised speeds? According to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission, Internet users in the U.S. are, for the most part, getting their money's worth.

July 19, 2012

Is your Internet service provider delivering on those advertised speeds? According to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission, Internet users in the U.S. are, for the most part, getting their money's worth.

ISPs are now delivering, on average, 96 percent of advertised Internet speeds during the peak hours of 7-11 p.m. local time, with five ISPs routinely meeting or exceeding those advertised rates, the FCC found. That's up from .

"Nearly every ISP is doing a better job this year than last year of delivering actual performance consistent with advertised performance," the FCC said.

Fiber-based ISPs provided the most bang for your download buck. On average, DSL-based service delivered download speeds that were 84 percent of advertised speeds, followed by cable with 99 percent, and fiber with 117 percent. That's an improvement across the board since August, when DSL had 82 percent, cable had 93 percent, and fiber had 114 percent, the FCC said.

Verizon's fiber service was tied with Cablevision for the highest actual download speed as a percentage of advertised speed at 120 percent, up from 114 percent and 54 percent last year, respectively. They were followed by Comcast (103 percent), Mediacom (100 percent), and Charter (98 percent). For more, see the chart below.

Among the ISPs monitored, the FCC found peak download speeds that varied from 77 percent to 120 percent of advertised speeds. That, the agency said, was a "dramatic improvement" from last year, when the same numbers ranged from 54 percent to 114 percent.

Not surprisingly, Internet speeds are slightly slower during peak periods than other times of the day. On average, fiber slows by 0.8 percent during high-traffic periods, DSL slows 3.4 percent, and cable slows 4.1 percent.

On the upload front, peak period speeds were 95 percent or better for all but one unnamed ISP. "On average, across all ISPs, upload speed was 107 percent of advertised speed," the FCC said, up from 103 percent last year. However, upload speeds are not a major issue. "Upload speeds showed little evidence of congestion with little variance between 24 hour averages and peak period average," the FCC said.

In 2010, the FCC that asked users to test their Internet connection quality and report that data to the commission. That proved useful, but the data was affected by things like a user's computer and connection technologies like routers. As recommended by the National Broadband Plan, the FCC opted to conduct "more consistent tests" of broadband speed using automated direct measurements of broadband performance, prompting these annual reports.

"Millions of Americans have improved broadband performance. This is good news for consumers and the economy, but we need to keep pushing for faster broadband speeds and greater capacity," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a Thursday statement. "Bandwidth abundance is essential to driving innovation and unleashing the benefits of broadband, including increased education, healthcare, and job-creation opportunities across the country."

For more, see .