ISPs like to brag about how fast their Internet access is in TV ads. But are their download speeds really as fast as they advertise? The Federal Communications Commission has now released its first ever report that examines Internet speeds from a variety of ISPs. The report's finding show that with a couple of exceptions download speeds tend to be fairly close to what the ISP claim they should be.
The report shows some differences in speeds based on what type of net connection are provided by the various ISPs. DSL connections tend to register 88 percent of their claimed download speeds at peek data hours. By contrast cable connections are closer at 93 percent of claimed speeds. If you are lucky enough to have a fiber-based Internet connection you actually fare better than what is advertised. The FCC report claims that those download speeds are 113 percent compared to what the ISPs advertised. In other words fiber speed results are actually better than what the ISPs claimed they would be.
In terms of individual Internet ISPs, Verizon's FiOS fiber Internet service are the most reliable in terms of providing the Internet speeds they advertised. Comcast is second on the list followed by Charter in third. If you are a Cablevision Internet subscriber you might want to consider switching. The FCC report gave low marks to that ISP claiming that its Internet speeds are only 50 percent what the company advertised at peek data times. Frontier didn't fare much better; the report claims it reached only 67 percent of its Internet download speeds at peak hours. Overall it's clear that unless you have a FiOS Internet connection running to your home the other ISPs have at least a little, and in some cases a lot of catching up to do.
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