Every Internet Service Provider Want to get the title of fastest ISP in America. This gives them the right to brag about how they have the fastest download speeds in the country. As recently as May of this year, we wrote about how Spectrum was named the fastest ISP in the United States (based on an Opensignal report). So, what does this mean? These studies look not at a provider’s top speed (the fastest plan it offers), but at the average internet speed that users experience across all plans. In other words, there are many variables (including the type of network connection) that are often the case with home Internet services.
That said, there’s a new ISP holding the championship belt. AT&T Fiber In tests collected by Ookla from January to June 2024, Cox Communications had a median download speed of just under 349 megabits per second, making it the fastest home network provider in the United States. Posted after the first place in speed.
A major factor is that Ookla now tracks AT&T Fiber performance independently of AT&T Internet, the company’s DSL products and services, and AT&T Online Airlinesit is 5G fixed wireless home network service. The move brings AT&T Fiber’s median download speed to just under 349Mbps, which is a big jump from the 245Mbps AT&T got in the fourth quarter of 2023 in its last report.
“We have invested at the top of the industry and built the largest fiber network in the country,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said proudly in a statement. “Ookla’s results confirm what we already knew. Things – Fiber Experience is way ahead of the game.”
Overall, AT&T Fiber led Ookla’s report with a speed score of 360.85, a metric the company uses to consider a provider’s download and upload speeds. Verizon also has fiber optic internet service Verizon Fios, far behind second place with a speed score of 269.47. Three cable providers rounded out the top five: Cox, unlimited and spectrum.
In previous years, the company published results every three months from all the information gleaned from millions of daily customer interactions with its Speedtest.net tool. This is the first time Ookla has released a half-year report, and the current statement covers the first six months of 2024, providing insight into the performance of the online services we increasingly rely on.
Okla is a Internet speed test The provider collects data through its Speedtest.net tool, which gathers insights from millions of customers using the speed test. CNET often uses these findings to help us understand Internet Service Provider Reviews. We also use Ookla speed test information to help compare and contrast network performance in different cities or state to state.
Why are these speed tests important?
To be included in Ookla’s study, ISPs had to appear in 3% or more of the test data collected during the six-month window. Some superfast regional providers – e.g. Ziply Fiber, offers ultra-fast 50 GB (or 50,000 Mbps) plans — Might offer higher median download speeds than the providers shown above, but won’t cover enough households to meet Ookla’s national inclusion criteria.
In CNET’s ISP reviews, we stress that while speed test data is helpful and can provide a snapshot of your network Internet connection Performance at any given moment is never guaranteed or perfect. Many factors can affect a speed test, including whether you are using Wi-Fi or hardwired Ethernet connectiontime to run tests, etc.
Because of these factors, not everyone using AT&T Fiber will experience these speeds. Rather, it is a benchmark for what a “typical” US customer can expect from that ISP. An Ookla spokesperson told CNET that the report aims to “more accurately reflect the typical performance that consumers actually experience online.”
Seeing a report like this, it’s easy to assume that the No. 1 company is the best Internet provider in the country. but it is not the truth. While AT&T Fiber does rank highly in our overall ISP score (and it has the highest score of any ISP in the world) Latest U.S. Customer Satisfaction Index Report), it may not be available in your region, or there may be regional providers not mentioned in the Ookla report, which may make a more compelling case for your business. Download speeds and speed test results may be important factors in your satisfaction with your broadband provider, but they are not the only factors.
