The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday shared its report showing the top ISPs in the U.S. based on fixed broadband speed.
Among major ISPs, Cablevision led with average broadband download speeds of 60 Mbps, followed by Verizon and Charter Communications each with around 50 Mbps. Cox Communications followed at 40 Mbps, while Comcast was about 35 Mbps.
In January 2015, the FCC redefined benchmark broadband speeds to 25 Mbps for downloads against the 4 Mbps set in 2010.
DSL technology experienced 28.2 percent annual increase in actual broadband download speeds, while the growth for cable was 61.2 percent and 19.2 percent for fiber.
Customers of Cablevision, Comcast, or Verizon Fiber (FiOS) experienced actual download speeds that are very consistent. FCC said more than 80 percent of their customers experienced actual download speeds at or above advertised download speeds during at least 80 percent of the peak usage period.
The report said that U.S. Internet connection speeds have tripled over 3.5 years. Average download connection speeds had increased to nearly 31 Mbps in September 2014 from about 10 Mbps in March 2011.
The FCC says video accounts for more than 60 percent of U.S. Internet traffic, a figure that may rise to 80 percent by 2019.
The United States ranks 25 out of 39 nations in 2013, according to the FCC. The United States was behind many countries including France, Canada, Germany and Japan — but ahead of Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Israel. The fastest was Luxembourg with average download speeds of 47.32 Mbps.
Among U.S. states, New Jersey had the fastest average Internet download speeds at 57 Mbps, while Idaho had the lowest at about 14 Mbps, just above Ohio and Arkansas.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
