There’s a new internet provider that’s holding the championship belt. AT&T Fiber emerged as the fastest fixed ISP in the U.S., with 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 took the top spot in the speed testing company’s previous two reports in the second half of 2023. So, what’s changed?
A key factor is that Ookla now tracks AT&T Fiber performance separately from AT&T Internet, the company’s DSL offering, and AT&T Internet Aviationare 5G Fixed Wireless Home Internet ServiceThe move saw AT&T Fiber record a median download speed of just under 349 megabits per second, a significant jump from the 245 Mbps AT&T scored in its previous Q4 2023 report.
Overall, AT&T Fiber led Ookla’s report with a Speed Score of 360.85, a metric the company uses to rate a provider’s download and upload speeds. Verizon, which also has fiber internet service with its Verizon Fio’swas far behind in second place with a speed score of 269.47. Three cable internet providers rounded out the top five: helmsman, Xfinity And Spectrum.
In previous years, the company has released the results of all the information it has collected from the millions of daily customer interactions with its Speedtest.net tool every three months. This is the first time Ookla has published a half-yearly report, with the current statement covering the first six months of 2024 and providing insight into the performance of the internet services we all increasingly rely on.
Ookla is a internet speed test provider that collects data through its Speedtest.net tool, which collects insights from millions of customer usages of that speed test. CNET often uses those findings to inform our internet provider reviewsWe also use Ookla’s speed test information to compare and contrast internet performance from city to city or state to state.
Why are these speed tests important?
Each internet provider wants to claim the title of America’s fastest ISP. It gives them the right to brag about how they have the fastest download speeds in the country. Back in May of this year, we wrote about how Spectrum was named the fastest ISP in the US (based on an Opensignal report). So what does it all mean? As is often the case with home internet service, there are a lot of variables.
To be included in Ookla’s study, an ISP must appear in 3% or more of the test data collected during the six-month window. Some high-speed regional providers — such as Ziply Fiber, which offers a super-fast 50 gigabit (or 50,000 Mbps) plan — may deliver higher median download speeds than the providers mentioned above, but do not reach enough households to meet Ookla’s national coverage goal.
In CNET’s ISP reviews, we emphasize that speed test data is useful and provides a snapshot of your Internet connection performance at a given time, it is not definitive or perfect. Many things can affect a speed test, including whether or not you Wi-Fi or a wired Ethernet connectionthe time you take the test, and so on.
Because of those factors, not everyone who uses AT&T Fiber can expect to experience those speeds. Rather, it’s a benchmark of what a “typical” U.S. customer might expect from that ISP. An Ookla spokesperson once told CNET that the report aims to “more accurately reflect the typical performance that consumers actually experience on a network.”
It’s tempting to look at reports like this and assume that the company with the highest ranking is the best internet provider in the country. But that’s not quite the case. While AT&T Fiber scored highly in our overall ISP scores (and received the highest score of any ISP in the country), it’s still the best ISP in the country. most recent report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index), it may not be available in your area, or there may be a regional provider not included in Ookla’s report that could be a more compelling reason for your business. Download speed and speed test results can be important factors in your satisfaction with a broadband provider, but they are not the only ones.
