The Fastest Internet Providers in America - November, 2022

The Fastest Internet Providers in America - November, 2022

November 17, 2023

The new lifeblood of the economy is data, and future economic growth will depend on our ability to transfer that data quickly. Fiber-optic cables and 5G wireless transmitters rank as high as oil pipelines in their importance to our way of life, and having a high-speed internet connection is essential.

We ranked the fastest internet providers based on data from more than 140 million internet speed tests conducted in the past 12 months.

The Fastest National Providers

90th percentile (Mbps) Maximum speed (Mbps) Median (Mbps) Est. population Covered
AT&T 495 5170.2 70 306,461,488
Verizon 536.3 7214.3 120 305,552,896
T-Mobile 184.7 4352.5 24.8 288,319,911
Xfinity 448.3 2543.9 114.2 111,927,145
Spectrum 321.7 2504.4 99.1 102,726,027

The Fastest Local and Regional Providers

All of the providers below had speeds above 150Mbps or higher at the 90th percentile and have a service area spanning between 200,000 and 40 million people. Stealth Communications, which is primarily a business internet provider, had the highest maximum speed recorded at an eye-popping 6,718 Mbps.

90th percentile (Mbps) Maximum speed (Mbps) Median (Mbps) Est. population Covered
Stealth Communications 4017 6718 26 2110129
Sonic 926 6106 176 1696048
US Signal Company 573 1743 102 2013697
Pilot 559 5240 191 673979
Google Fiber 536 4102 157 2848858
UTOPIA 527 1227 91 371907
SUMOFIBER 511 985 140 680878
VTel Wireless 506 931 91 621795
netBlazr 501 928 188 543758
Crown Castle Fiber 489 5280 83 36626458
Frontier Communications 482 5708 93 33047632
Astound Broadband Powered by Grande 480 2650 112 1419741
Ziply Fiber 474 2147 77 1482362
Ultimate Internet Access 472 947 71 523958
EPB 470 4996 100 363786
Cincinnati Bell 438 3166 82 1518281
Dakota Carrier Network 437 825 95 395028
ACD.net 434 942 47 904073
OSHEAN 426 2544 77 966614
Cox Communications 423 5441 95 20941074
Connext 415 903 110 735956
Metronet 412 1508 87 5122649
Astound Broadband Powered by Wave 412 1922 93 2109144
C Spire Fiber 410 1215 38 1608230
WOW! 397 2298 95 7174627
Suddenlink Communications 394 1454 93 7020099
FirstDigital Telecom 384 936 88 726502
Surf Broadband Solutions 383 945 78 1038470
Breezeline 378 1030 100 1897822
Mediacom Cable 376 1578 90 6564176
GVEC.net 373 943 90 665876
Everywhere Wireless 361 916 103 3916796
Viser 359 920 47 381108
Unite Private Networks 351 1713 84 4638480
Fidelity Communications 348 1118 73 385492
TPx Communications 342 1549 49 638808
GCI Communication 340 848 49 559918
Ptera 336 924 14 614356
Optimum by Altice 335 5349 114 11941064
NUVISIONS 326 934 53 1591513
TDS Telecom 322 3086 75 2048611
Single Digits 319 936 63 362820
Sparklight (formerly Cable One) 306 1251 91 4292287
Vast Networks 304 2175 39 1962960
Agile Networks 302 688 24 5124661
SenaWave 302 940 92 455224
Point Broadband 302 2090 84 604099
Armstrong 295 2161 104 1063965
Consolidated Communications (Formerly Fairpoint Communications) 290 4305 40 4572375
LOGIX Fiber Networks 287 4196 93 358941
Aerux Broadband 277 946 86 1476008
Net Vision Communications LLC 276 902 45 726758
Tekify Fiber & Wireless 274 947 28 470364
PenTeleData 268 3003 84 2021477
NexGen Communications 263 774 55 428871
Shentel 252 3099 48 417577
Towerstream 238 897 201 1029908
Cablelynx Broadband 220 948 54 376970
Northland Communications 219 902 93 363894
Hawaiian Telcom 213 426 54 1282690
Vyve Broadband 213 2645 88 1295573
Parker FiberNet 211 1129 50 473196
Buckeye Broadband 201 1993 83 542329
Amplex Internet 199 930 18 445288
Uniti Fiber 193 946 67 660652
OnlineNW 192 940 13 505449
Bresco Broadband 180 1206 15 881416
Windstream 172 2938 27 12660437
WiLine Networks 166 941 38 2136190
Cruzio Internet 164 940 46 3024653

More on why we chose the 90th percentile:

First, the median speed unfairly favors certain providers depending on their customer base. Companies that offer internet packages at a variety of speeds, or leverage a variety of technologies, may have a lower median because a large number of customers may choose slower plans to match their budget. Providers that only offer one package, or that may only have commercial customers, will see a smaller impact on their median. The 90th percentile can also be affected by this, but it levels the playing field by focusing on customers who have bought high speed packages.

Second, the maximum observed speed is a poor indicator of the speeds people are actually experiencing – there is an extreme drop off in speeds below that. The following graph shows an example of this drop-off, where speeds are indicated on the X-axis and the Y-axis shows the percentage of customers experiencing that speed or higher.

Internet Speed Drop-off Graph

While this provider had observed speeds as high as 780 Mbps, that represented just one person in over 3000, or the top 0.03% of speeds observed.

Advertised speed vs. actual speed

The actual internet speed delivered to your home is often lower than the speed advertised on your internet provider’s plan. This is due to a number of factors, many of which are internet-type specific.

For example, cable internet users often have to deal with slower speeds during peak hours, since bandwidth is shared with neighbors. This is especially true in the evening hours when many households have an increased volume of internet use.

DSL internet speeds often vary depending on the proximity of your home to the provider’s local office in your area. For fixed wireless users, household items such as microwaves or objects obstructing the clear line-of-sight to/from your antenna can give you slower speeds.

A satellite internet connection also requires a line-of-sight connection with the network. This can cause slower speeds for users living in areas with mountains and forests. The equipment is also susceptible to interference from poor weather conditions.

Fiber internet providers are often able to deliver speeds extremely close to advertised speeds.

What speed do I need?

In 2015, then FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler introduced the current definition of broadband internet, which is 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speed (often denoted as 25/3). That definition may change, however, because on July 15th 2022, current FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed increasing it to 100 Mbps down and 25 Mbps up (or 100/25), with an eye to going even higher in the future. In her proposal she stated, “The needs of internet users long ago surpassed the FCC’s 25/3 speed metric, especially during a global health pandemic that moved so much of life online […] The 25/3 metric isn’t just behind the times, it’s a harmful one because it masks the extent to which low-income neighborhoods and rural communities are being left behind and left offline.”

To get a better idea of exactly what speeds you need, you can refer to our bandwidth calculator that details the speeds required for a number of different activities.

Methodology

We queried M-Labs Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) dataset for speed test data for 160 of the top internet providers in the US by estimated population covered. We analyzed over 140 million speed tests with over 1000 data points for each provider spanning a 12-month period.

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