With more and more people working from home (Opens in a new tab), a fast Internet connection is fast becoming a necessity and new data from HighSpeedInternet.com has revealed that Internet speeds (Opens in a new tab) tab) in the US have been much faster lately. years.
To compile its new report (opens in a new tab), the site used data from its internal internet speed test tool to find the fastest growing internet providers.
According to HighSpeedInternet.com's analysis of millions of Internet speed test results, Google Fiber (opens in a new tab) was the fastest Internet provider in the United States last year with average upload and download speeds faster faster than any other Internet Service Provider (ISP) . The service has a maximum advertised speed of up to 2000 Mbps and 12-month average download speeds of 161,6 Mbps.
Verizon Fios (opens in a new tab) was the second fastest internet provider with top advertised speeds of up to 940 Mbps, followed by Metronet, Xfinity (opens in a new tab), and Astound Broadband. However, between 2018 and 2021, the top ISPs in the US saw year-over-year speed increases with big improvements in average speed performance.
Rural internet speeds are still lagging
As Internet speeds have increased in US cities and other more congested areas, the switch from DSL Internet to fiber Internet (opens in a new tab) has made it more difficult to improve Internet speeds in rural areas.
Although fiber Internet speeds often top 1000 Mbps, fiber availability is much more limited across the country, while DSL is widely available. However, ISPs have stopped expanding DSL in favor of fiber internet to provide their customers with faster internet.
For this reason, rural Internet users have turned to satellite Internet (opens in a new tab) because they don't have to rely on ISPs to run cable to connect their homes. . Satellite internet has its own limitations as each satellite provider has a limited number of satellites and expanding satellite infrastructure to increase bandwidth requires significant investment.
Increased customer needs during the pandemic may have put additional pressure on satellite providers, as HughesNet and Viasat saw their download speeds drop dramatically between July 2019 and July 2020, according to data from HighSpeedInternet.com. .
Rural Internet customers still have options, as the rollout of Starlink (opens in a new tab) and 4G LTE Internet (opens in a new tab) from wireless carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile has made it easier for them to reach much more fast internet compared to other satellite providers. Starlink had an average download speed of 55 Mbps last year, while 4G internet speeds ranged from 25 to 100 Mbps.