Ookla Releases Updating Ranking of U.S. Fixed Broadband Provider Services

On July 17, Ookla released its U.S. Market Report for the second quarter of 2023, which ranks mobile and fixed broadband providers according to speeds and other service criteria. According to Ookla's Speedtest Intelligence® performance metrics, for Q2 of this year, Charter's Spectrum cable broadband service had the highest median download speed among fixed providers, at 243.02 Mbps. In a July 17 article, FierceTelecom reported that this is an increase from Q1, when Spectrum's median download speeds were 234.8 Mbps. For Q2, Cox ranked close second in median download speeds at 241.78 Mbps, Comcast's Xfinity was third with 233.25 Mbps and AT&T Internet was fourth with 210.12 Mbps. AT&T and Frontier were the two fixed providers for upload speeds, at 166.86 Mbps and 164.84, respectively. Ookla's Market Report also ranks U.S. fixed providers based on latency, consistency, and video. The report includes regional comparisons as well.

Certainly, the numbers shown in Ookla's Market Report are an improvement over figures cited in the FCC's 2022 Communications Marketplace Report as well as in my January 2023 Perspectives from FSF Scholars paper that reviewed the Commission's report. Continuing steady increases in fixed broadband speeds are predicated on strong network investment as well as network innovation. Ongoing and near-future rollouts of fiber and 10G cable broadband enabled by private market investment and innovation also will significantly boost upload and download speeds, latency, capacity, reliability, and security. To ensure further improvements in broadband network performance, the FCC should maintain its federal market-oriented policy towards broadband Internet access services that defines them as lightly-regulated "information services."

Starlink's Performance Shows Prudence of Swift FCC Approval

Recent Ookla data measuring the performance of Starlink's low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband network shows the prudence of the FCC's swift approval of LEO constellations. SpaceX's Starlink, the only operational satellite broadband network in LEO providing home broadband, posted industry-leading speeds and latency for Q3 2021. Most notably, Starlink's speeds and especially its latency are generally comparable to that of many fixed broadband networks, showing that, once sufficient LEO satellites are deployed, LEO constellations, realistically, can provide high quality connectivity to rural and hard-to-serve areas where building physical networks is cost-prohibitive.

Starlink posted 87.25 Mbps / 13.54 Mbps median broadband speeds with a median latency of 44 ms, far outpacing competitors HughesNet and Viasat, which operate broadband networks at higher orbital altitudes than LEO. Starlink's speeds are over 4.5 times faster than HughesNet (19.30 Mbps/ 2.54 Mbps) and Viasat (18.75 Mbps/ 2.96 Mbps) for both download and upload. And while fixed networks have superior speeds, Starlink comes far closer to the median fixed network speeds of 119.84 Mbps / 13.54 Mbps than its higher orbit competitors, which offer speeds that are roughly a fifth or sixth of median fixed network speeds.

But latency is where Starlink especially stands out. Starlink's median latency, 44 ms, is about 15 times smaller than the median latencies of its satellite competitors, and only 2.9 times larger than the median latency for fixed networks. High latency – meaning signal delay – has long characterized satellite networks, and this makes them less attractive options than terrestrial and wireless broadband. Broadband with high latency makes certain applications that depend on split-second connections like video games, voice and video calling, and livestreaming less usable and reliable. As Commissioner Brendan Carr noted in a 2018 statement approving part of Starlink's constellation, "[LEO satellites] promise lower latency connections because they typically orbit only a few hundred miles above Earth, as opposed to many thousands." Starlink's network is delivering on that promise at an early stage.

Starlink's high speeds and low latency are important because satellites generally provide global coverage, which makes Starlink a serious contender for providing affordable, high-quality service in rural and other hard-to-serve areas. Users simply need to install a dish on their home to receive satellite broadband, avoiding the expensive and often cost-prohibitive infrastructure buildouts needed to reach rural and other hard-to-serve areas. This is precisely the consumer demographic Starlink targets with its marketing. Its website states: "Starlink is ideally suited for areas where connectivity has been unreliable or completely unavailable." So far, Starlink has 145,000 customers, a figure that's quickly grown from the 90,000 it reported in July 2021.

Ookla does note that Starlink's service performance varies by region in the United States, ranging from about 45 Mbps download in some areas to 145 Mbps download in others. But as Starlink continues to launch satellites, its coverage and network capacity will improve. Starlink has FCC approval to deploy 12,000 satellites, but so far it only has roughly 2,000 in orbit. SpaceX has already launched more Starlink satellites this month.

Even though Starlink hasn't deployed its full constellation, its broadband performance is already stronger than median fixed speeds in multiple developed countries. Starlink's median speeds for Q3 2021 in Australia, Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom outperformed median speeds for fixed networks in those countries. This is largely because fixed broadband is much slower in those places than it is in United States, according to Ookla's measurements.

Starlink, the first operational LEO constellation, first applied for FCC approval in 2016. Nothing guaranteed a swift approval, and the Commission could have chosen to wait longer before approving the application. Such delay often denies lifechanging technologies to Americans. Thankfully, the Commission approved LEO constellations for Starlink and potential competitors Amazon, OneWeb, Boeing, and others, including some that already have exited the market.

Free State Foundation Director of Policy Studies Seth Cooper supported Starlink's approval back in 2018. I previously highlighted a planned backhaul deal between Amazon and Verizon that will start once Amazon's LEO constellation reaches orbit in the next few years.

Starlink's early performance metrics suggest that the FCC was smart to quickly approve LEO satellites. The Commission's swift approval and support for market competition has allowed Starlink and potentially others to serve the unconnected Americans our federal government has spent billions trying to reach over the last decade.

New FCC Report Shows Increased Broadband Quality for Consumers

On December 1, 2016, the FCC published its sixth Measuring Broadband America report, which examines the speeds, latency, and consumer trends of fixed broadband services nationwide. Here are some of the key findings from the report:

Significant growth in broadband speeds available to consumers, though the results are not uniform across technologies. The median download speed, averaged across all participating ISPs, has almost quadrupled, from approximately 10 Mbps in March 2011, to approximately 39 Mbps in September 2015. Compared to last year’s value of 32 Mbps, this year’s median download speed was an increase of approximately 22%.  

Since the first Measuring Broadband America report in August 2011, the average annual increase in median download speeds by technology is 47% for cable, and 14% for fiber, while popular DSL speeds have remained largely the same. (See the chart below for the growth in the median download speed over the past five years.)

Actual speeds experienced by most consumers meet or exceed advertised speeds. All ISPs using cable, fiber or satellite technologies advertise speeds for services that, on average, are close to the actual speeds experienced by their subscribers. Fixed cable and fiber broadband customers experienced speeds that were 100% or better than advertised.

The chart below shows the ratio of weighted median speed to advertised speed for a number of broadband providers. Of the 16 providers included in the sample, nine of them delivered actual download and upload speeds that are greater than the advertised speeds.

Consumers with access to faster services continue to migrate to higher service tiers. Data shows that panelists subscribed in September 2014 to service tiers with advertised download speeds between 15 Mbps to 50 Mbps are the most likely to have migrated towards higher service tiers. In contrast, among panelists subscribed in September 2014 to service tiers with advertised download speeds of less than 15 Mbps – offered mostly by DSL services – only a few percent migrated within the following year to a service tier with a higher download speed.

Latency and packet loss vary by technologies. Consumers generally experienced low latency – the time it takes for a data packet to travel from one point to another in a network – on DSL, cable and fiber systems. Higher latency in satellite services may affect the perceived quality of highly interactive applications such as VoIP calls, video chat and multiplayer games. Consumers generally experienced low packet loss – the percentage of packets that are sent by the source but not received by the destination – on cable, satellite and fiber systems.

The results of the FCC’s sixth Measuring Broadband America report show that the quality of broadband is increasing throughout the United States. Despite regulatory barriers that may have slowed investment and innovation in broadband technologies, the broadband market remains dynamically competitive and consumers are benefiting from faster speeds and more reliable connections.