Can You Guess the New King of Internet Speed? America’s Fastest ISP Revealed

Everyone internet service provider wants to claim the title of fastest ISP in America. That gives them bragging rights that they have the fastest download speeds in the country. Back in May of this year, we wrote about Spectrum being named the fastest ISP in the U.S. (based on a report by Opensignal). What does all that mean? This research doesn’t take into account a provider’s maximum speed — the fastest plan it offers — but the average internet speeds that users experience across all of its plans. In other words, as is often the case with home internet services, there are a lot of variables (including the type of internet connection).

By the way, we have a new ISP that has won the championship belt. AT&T Fiber Optic emerged as the fastest home internet provider in the U.S., recording a median download speed of just under 349 megabits per second in tests collected by Ookla from January through June 2024. The news comes after Cox Communications earned the top spot in the company’s two previous speed test reports in the second half of 2023. So what’s changed?

One of the most important factors is that Ookla now tracks AT&T Fiber’s performance separately from AT&T Internet, the company’s DSL offerings, and AT&T Internet Airhis 5G Fixed Wireless Home Internet ServiceWith the move, AT&T Fiber saw median download speeds of just under 349 Mbps, a significant jump from the 245 Mbps AT&T achieved in its previous Q4 2023 report.

Overall, AT&T Fiber leads the Ookla report with a Speed ​​Score of 360.85, a metric the company uses to measure a provider’s download and upload speeds. Verizon, which also boasts fiber internet service with its Verizon Fioscame in much further back, in second place, with a Speed ​​Score of 269.47. Three cable internet providers made it into the top five: Helmsman, Xfinity AND Spectrum.

In previous years, the company has released the results of all the information it collects from millions of daily customer interactions using Speedtest.net every three months. This is the first time Ookla has released a semi-annual report, and this announcement covers the first six months of 2024 and provides insight into the performance of the internet services we all increasingly rely on.

Ookla is internet speed test provider that collects data through its Speedtest.net tool, which collects information from millions of customers who use this speed test. CNET often uses these findings to help us internet service provider reviewsWe also use information from Ookla Speed ​​Test to compare and contrast internet performance across cities and states.

Why are speed tests so important?

To be included in Ookla’s study, an ISP must appear in 3% or more of the test data collected during a six-month window. Some super-fast regional providers—like Ziply Fiber, which offers a super-fast 50 gigabit (or 50,000 Mbps) plan — may offer higher average download speeds than the providers shown above, but do not reach enough households to meet Ookla’s criteria for national market inclusion.

CNET’s ISP reviews emphasize that while speed test data is helpful and can give you an overall picture Internet connection performance at any given time, it is not final or perfect. Many things can affect the speed test, including whether you are using Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet connectiontime of day the test is performed etc.

Because of these factors, not everyone who uses AT&T Fiber can expect these speeds. Rather, it’s a benchmark of what the “typical” U.S. customer could expect from the ISP. An Ookla spokesperson once told CNET that the report is intended to “more accurately represent the typical performance that consumers actually experience on the network.”

It’s tempting to look at reports like this and assume that the company that comes in first is the best internet provider in the entire country. But that’s not entirely true. While AT&T Fiber ranks high in our overall ISP scores (and received the highest rating of any ISP in the latest report of the American Customer Satisfaction Index), may not be available in your area, or there may be a regional provider not included in the Ookla report that may provide a more compelling reason for your business. Download speeds and speed test results can be important factors in your satisfaction with your broadband provider, but they are not the only ones.