Many Internet providers still aren’t telling the entire truth when it comes to what speeds their residential users get, but they’re getting closer, according to a Federal Communication Commission report released today.
The U.S. government tracks this kind of information based on actual performance tests. One of the FCC’s goals is to consumers get the information they need to make informed marketplace decisions.
This transparency may also convince ISPs to be less creative in their claims, however, since the FCC said its latest report “reveals striking across-the-board-improvements on key metrics underlying user performance” since the first report was released a year ago.
ISPs are more likely to deliver on their promises now, the report shows. In the August 2011 report, the average ISP delivered 87 percent of advertised download speed during peak usage periods; in 2012, that jumped to 96 percent.
As shown in the chart below, some ISPs are much better than others, and now all consumers know it. We’re looking at you, AT&T, Frontier, Qwest, Verizon DSL and Windstream.
The entire FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau report can be seen here.
Related link:
FCC – “A Report on Consumer Wireline Broadband Performance in the U.S.”
Photo by Flickr user timo_w2s, used under Creative Commons license
