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Is Your ISP Delivering Advertised Speeds?
New FCC Data Names and Shames Under Performers Like AT&T

Back in 2011 the FCC began collecting real-world user broadband data from customized routers, then issuing reports on which ISPs were failing to deliver advertised speeds. It's one of the few FCC policies in recent years that has truly paid dividends for consumers. The first report "named and shamed" several larger ISPs like Cablevision for offering horrible peak performance, offering less than 50% of advertised sustained speeds at peak hours. The tactic did wonders -- by the second report Cablevision had boosted that performance to 128%.

Click for full size
Today the FCC released their third annual report naming and shaming ISPs whose peak bandwidth performance isn't up to snuff. According to the latest FCC data, just four ISPs tracked by the agency managed to deliver faster than advertised speeds during peak hours: ViaSat (137%) Verizon FiOS (118%), Cablevision (115%), and Comcast (103%).

As three of these companies attest, the FCC's practice of naming and shaming works -- if there's regional competition. Verizon FiOS and Cablevision in particular have spent the last few years trying to one up one another in terms of offering speeds faster than what is advertised on promotional materials.

The FCC says they're now including satellite broadband in their study for the first time; ViaSat only cooperating after they launched their faster Exede service. HughesNet's Gen4 service is not included in the rankings -- probably a good thing for HughesNet considering the massive complaints we've seen about under-performing connections from the company's newest Gen4 offerings. Satellite's advertised speed rankings of course don't take into account the often draconian daily usage limits these users face, or some of the compression used by these operators.

As for the rest of the ISPs in the FCC's study, most are at least getting close to what they advertise in terms of speed delivery. Cable offered 99% of advertised speeds at peak times to 85% for DSL. As the chart above illustrates (click to enlarge) there's several notable under-performers, including AT&T, Windstream, CenturyLink, and other telcos with little to no competitive incentive to upgrade their networks. The lone exception appears to be Frontier who, after getting slammed in the first two reports has made significant performance gains -- though still only offering an average of 87% of advertised speeds at peak times.

According to the FCC, the agency plans to expand the tests to include additional metrics and other technologies like wireless. The agency historically has avoided naming and shaming carriers on price, as the industry violently fights the FCC on collecting and publicizing that data for obvious reasons. As the ViaSat Exede example obviously highlights, collecting data on which ISPs impose usage caps would also be invaluable.
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AnonFTW
@reliablehosting.com

AnonFTW

Anon

Ummm, wat?

A satellite provider has the best ratio?

Heh213
join:2012-06-16

Heh213

Member

Re: Ummm, wat?

If I recall correctly during a video with engadget or someone similar Viasat was demonstrating Exede and mentioned that they actually setup the speeds a bit higher than advertised.

I've gotten around 2MB/s (roughly 16mbps) downloads during the free period on Exede 12 (12mbps service) when visiting someone with it.

Forsaken77
@optonline.net

Forsaken77

Anon

Re: Ummm, wat?

Viasats speeds may be higher than advertised, but the speed in general isn't all that high. Well I guess its high to arcaic dsl speed, but compared to cable or fios it isn't anything to shake a stick at.

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

skeechan to AnonFTW

Premium Member

to AnonFTW
Under promise, not so quite underperform.

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

Karl Bode

News Guy

Re: Ummm, wat?

Will be interesting to see if they can maintain those numbers as capacity dries up. Also the FCC really should note those usage caps...

Meanwhile HughesNet Gen4 service is AWOL, as many users here struggle to get 1 Mbps on a good day from a "next gen" service.
devnuller
join:2006-06-10
Cambridge, MA

1 edit

devnuller

Member

Re: Ummm, wat?

said by Karl Bode:

Will be interesting to see if they can maintain those numbers as capacity dries up. Also the FCC really should note those usage caps...

I think they do note that in the consumption area of the report
floydb1982
join:2004-08-25
Kent, WA

floydb1982 to AnonFTW

Member

to AnonFTW
Yes Comcast is giving me all the 35Mbps/5Mbps coax cable speeds I am paying for. Beside that I can't wait untill Comcast upgrades there network and doubles thee connection speeds at no extra cost.

drew
Radiant
Premium Member
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA

drew

Premium Member

Since when...?

Do ISPs promise bandwidth speeds.

As far as I'm aware, they all throw "up to" in 2pt font next to the number. That's how my ISP gets to feel righteous about the sub-1mbps peak-time performance.

I do have to ask, though... considering the lack of competition in any number of markets, how does the FCC "naming and shaming" these providers actually result in increased performance?

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

Re: Since when...?

said by drew:

Do ISPs promise bandwidth speeds.

AT&T does a very good job of getting a customer modem to sync to the tier; but their small print specifies that they are selling sync (say, 3008 kbps) not throughput (typically 2,500 kbps for 3008 sync).

As far as I'm aware, they all throw "up to" in 2pt font next to the number.

AT&T specifies minimum speeds for their tiers, as well. My ISP advertises "up to"; but with a caveat regarding distance. They don't sell by tier, and they will bust their butt to get a reasonable DSL sync rate for the length of the loop.
bitbang3r
join:2011-08-25
Hollywood, FL

bitbang3r

Member

Re: Since when...?

In South Florida, AT&T (U-verse) has been VERY consistently good for me. I have Max Turbo (24mbps down, 3mbps up).

In the interest of full disclosure, I had to REALLY kick, scream, and throw tantrums to get it... and they tried their hardest to not let me have my way... but it's been awesome ever since the day they finally got everything working. I can go to speedtest.net almost anytime and get at least 23.8mbps down and 2.85mbps up without even trying, as long as there isn't more than one active video stream at that moment (with two streams, the download speeds fall to around 19-20mbps).

My experience has been that AT&T/U-verse bandwidth is real, and backed by solid backhaul & tier-1 connectivity to the rest of the world... in stark contrast to Comcast, who's blisteringly fast as long as you don't leave their local network, but falls flat on its face the moment you try connecting to a server in Taipei or London through a VPN... and their domestic connectivity to non-Comcast networks wasn't much to brag about, either.

The one thing AT&T gets nailed for is the fact that with U-verse, your TV streams eat into your internet connectivity unless you either have a slow internet package, or you're on their 32/5 profile and don't watch a lot of TV. But within the technical constraints imposed by VDSL2, everything I've seen has been pretty solid and good.

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14

Member

Re: Since when...?

I am getting about 12 down and 1.5 up from advertised 18 down, but it's not too bad.At least not as ridiculously expensive as Concast.
That u verse gateway is horrible though.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman to drew

Premium Member

to drew
Cablevision seemed to respond to the first report in a significant manner. I read that they really did not do much actual work to accomplish that feat. They looked at the traffic management equipment and algorithms in use. The analysis showed they were out of date with the equipment upgrades they had accomplished over the years. Unleash the network by changing traffic management and your performance goes up.

Jon8
@myvzw.com

Jon8 to drew

Anon

to drew
FCC is correct in not letting the fine print disclaim anything the bold print claims. Clear speed claims have been made.

AnonPerson
join:2000-08-26
Lexington, KY

AnonPerson

Member

Notice:

Many of the companies that come close to or exceed "100%" are also the companies that manipulate speed tests with speed bursting.

Darknessfall
Premium Member
join:2012-08-17
Motorola MG8725
Asus RT-N66

Darknessfall

Premium Member

Re: Notice:

said by AnonPerson:

Many of the companies that come close to or exceed "100%" are also the companies that manipulate speed tests with speed bursting.

It's graphing sustained speed.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt to AnonPerson

Premium Member

to AnonPerson
If you read the report you would see this is based on the data from the "Sam Knows" whiteboxes in consumer homes and not providers tests.
The sam knows boxes do record the burst speed, and also the shaped speeds this report is based on.
SpeedBoost was not a factor.
Being a samknows tester , I know I consistently meet or exceed my advertised speed 99%+ of the time and am very close the other 36 or so hours per YEAR. That exceeds my expectations.

I don't believe most/any of the providers are attempting to manipulate the data or collection process, but it would be interesting to see a comparison of their in house tests VS what these test show.
JTR
join:2012-05-19
Westmont, IL
MikroTik CCR2004-1G-12S-2XS
Asus RT-AC86
Asus RT-AC68

JTR

Member

Re: Notice:

Do you have any idea how much extra data one of those SamKnows boxes uses every month? I've considered signing up as a volunteer, but I'm going to be forced onto a cap by Mediacom sooner or later (currently grandfathered in as unlimited) and might not have a huge amount of data to spare for testing.

(I suppose I could also just write a script to do it myself, but I'm still curious about SamKnows)

Thanks in advance!

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

Re: Notice:

it ranges from 10gb to 20gb from my experience. not much.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

Re: Notice:

And if you tell them it's a problem they will put it in "limited reporting" mode = less tests/off peak= still worth knowing and reporting.
dfxmatt
join:2007-08-21
Crystal Lake, IL

dfxmatt to AnonPerson

Member

to AnonPerson
As much as I think every company delivers like crap, the issue is how they track specific areas. Not how they measure the speed. They haven't even gotten to a good method of determining how to define an area properly.
majortom1029
join:2006-10-19
Medford, NY

majortom1029 to AnonPerson

Member

to AnonPerson
Cablevision does not speedboost and neither does Verizon. They both over provision the speeds so that you get a little more then advertised.

Cthen
Premium Member
join:2004-08-01
Detroit, MI

Cthen

Premium Member

Woohoo!

They are going to shame them! That is so going to do.....hhhmmm......well.....uuhhmm.....nothing!

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

Karl Bode

News Guy

Re: Woohoo!

It did improve the performance of Cablevision, Mediacom and Frontier Communications, though I'm sure that your mileage may vary depending on location.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Depends on location

Comcast has always delivered more than promised SUSTAINED speeds at my house for over 10 yrs. Your mileage may vary.
cferro
join:2003-07-27
Jersey City, NJ

cferro

Member

Re: Depends on location

Comcast does deliver the speed, but things can be a little confusing for customers. Many people do not know how fast "blast" service is in their area for example. I think the company charges a lot for HSI service.
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym

Premium Member

Why, yes, yes it does.

SamKnows consistently reports that I'm getting more bandwidth than I'm paying for.

Not much. A megabit here, a megabit there.

Metatron2008
You're it
Premium Member
join:2008-09-02
united state

Metatron2008

Premium Member

At&t and windstream...

The two companies that are bribing our state politicians are also the two lowest performers...

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

Karl Bode

News Guy

Re: At&t and windstream...

Funny how that works, ain't it?

Metatron2008
You're it
Premium Member
join:2008-09-02
united state

1 recommendation

Metatron2008

Premium Member

Re: At&t and windstream...

Yeah, it's almost like, they spend all their upgrade money on executive pay, lobby money, and lawyers...

Camaro
Question everything
Premium Member
join:2008-04-05
Westfield, MA

Camaro

Premium Member

Re: At&t and windstream...

Lie's you speak of, Lie's.

Piggie
Just A Pig With A Computer
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Orange Springs, FL

Piggie to Metatron2008

Premium Member

to Metatron2008
Windstream 80% ???? I am lucky to get 50% during peak, and goes as low as 20% most evenings. Someone is lying.

Twaddle
@sbcglobal.net

Twaddle to Metatron2008

Anon

to Metatron2008
Ditto for me! Yet our elected officials still do NOTHING!! JUst tells me the pimping of the elected whores is working well in America
devnuller
join:2006-06-10
Cambridge, MA

1 recommendation

devnuller

Member

Truth in Advertising

Click for full size
This graph in the report tells a lot. Which providers are offering a consistent, sustained, advertised speed across their customer base. It removes things like:

• Burst/Powerboost
• Time of day averages
• Geographies / where you live
• Specific product benefits (Except for FiOS)

The peak ToD is most interesting to watch and see how well ISPs manage capacity at peak time of day.

Twaddle
@sbcglobal.net

Twaddle

Anon

Re: Truth in Advertising

These test results show Charter Cable delivering quite well but I read that their service is horrible, unreliable with numerous outages plus endless surcharges. Confusing as to how they can achieve these results with their performance. anyone out there have Charter in the Asheville, NC area who can attest to the validity of this report?
28619103 (banned)
join:2009-03-01
21435

28619103 (banned)

Member

Re: Truth in Advertising

Said the competitor from AT&T

You can also compare and contrast with: »www.netindex.com

acadiel
Press fire to begin
Premium Member
join:2002-06-22
Atlanta

acadiel

Premium Member

Speaking of this....

I've had my unit connected just over two years now. How long are they going to make me keep it connected for?


•••

BillKula
@verizon.com

BillKula

Anon

Fiber: Good for your health and your home network

Bill Kula here with Verizon PR.

Verizon’s blog and official statement about the FCC broadband performance test can be accessed here: »newscenter.verizon.com/r ··· ce-test/

“As the FCC report showed, every FiOS Internet speed tier delivered more than 100 percent of its advertised and sustained download performance during peak Internet usage periods, differentiating FiOS Internet from most cable company competitors.

“The FCC’s findings reaffirm the results from the past two FCC broadband performance tests, which found that FiOS Internet provides blazing-fast and sustained upstream and downstream speeds as well as low latency even during the peak Internet usage time periods of 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. local time.

“FiOS Quantum speeds of 50 Mbps or higher will increasingly become what most of our customers use because it provides capacity a step above competing services, as households add and use more Internet-connected tablets, laptops, video game consoles, smart TVs, Blu-ray players, streaming video services and smartphones.

“While the number of Internet-connected devices grows, so too does the amount of time that consumers use those devices simultaneously, boosting their demand for not only fast downloads and uploads but also consistent and reliable performance at all times of the day. Consistently faster Internet service helps consumers get more value from all the Internet-connected devices they’re using.”

Trimline
Premium Member
join:2004-10-24
Windermere, FL

Trimline

Premium Member

Re: Fiber: Good for your health and your home network

Problem is, your foot print is way small. Verizon needs to start investing again and take the entire market. Period.

No FIOS in Orlando.... just some areas of Tampa.
slopoke
join:2012-05-20
London, OH

slopoke

Member

Frontier Communications (Ohio)

When Frontier moved in here after Verizon left, things got increasingly better. I only pay for 3 to 5 Mbs so We run anywhere from 2.5 M's to 4.5-5M's off peak. Quite steady. But when the school busses let out the animals.....? Nose dive to 1.5 M's. It's been down twice in two years, (when some dum a$$ cuts a cable with a backhoe somewhere) So for rural with only TW and Frontier, it's a good average 3Mbs DSL or the big buck cable that shuts down almost daily at 15 Mbs. At what our bundle costs ($62.00 incl taxes and full phone apps) we get what pretty much they claim.
evmoy15
join:2013-01-31
Federal Way, WA

evmoy15

Member

Glad to have some concrete evidence

I'm pretty glad the FCC has started these reports. I know it's helped out my friends on Frontier DSL, and I'm glad it gives consumers a way to see who's over/underperforming.

Now just give it a week or two and AT&T will be trying to shut this down.

jfleni
@bhn.net

jfleni

Anon

What averages never show.

These reports and graphs are very good and helpful, but never shown is the dismal result of sudden internet disappearances from 30 seconds up to 8-10 minutes at random times for random reasons; shamoo or mickey-money or the ball game apparently takes precedence. Usually, it will return of its own accord, indicating good equipment at both ends, but sometimes only after a reboot.

An occasional problem like this is just bad luck, but when the network (Bright-house) vanishes frequently or even daily, often after business hours, the isp is not delivering what it promises to its customers.

JuanValdez
@qwest.net

JuanValdez

Anon

Hughes Gen4

BAHAHAHAHA! As I am reading this article, there is a banner ad at the top of this page for Hughes Gen4!
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

Comcast usually does

25/4 within a few hundred kbps. They used to do a 10% over-provision, which was nice.

mooch
No Booing Allowed
join:2001-11-11
Sunbury, OH

mooch

Member

Centurylink/Qwest DSL not delivering advertised speeds

Based on my own experience with Centurylink's inconsistent DSL service, it doesn't surprise me to see Centurylink and Qwest DSL service being slower than most of it's competitors and not delivering the speeds that customers are paying for.

I highly doubt these FCC reports will shame Centurylink into doing anything to improve their DSL service but at least it reinforces what I already knew.
floydb1982
join:2004-08-25
Kent, WA

2 edits

floydb1982

Member

Re: Centurylink/Qwest DSL not delivering advertised speeds

If you can get cox cable broadband service then switch to it because you get way faster speeds than you'll ever get with Centurylink DSL broadband. As I understand it the farther you live from the telephone central office the slower your speeds get. because DSL can travel threw the telephone line 18,000 feet or 3 miles before the signal becomes to degraded. I can't get ADSL because at the time the Qwest tecn dud said that the line to my house was 22,500 feet and they only serviced the ADSL upto 15,000 feet. What speeds are you getting with Centurylink ADSL??? I am getting 35Mbps/5Mbps threw Comcast's coax cable lines.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Once they ditch PowerBoost

Once they ditch PowerBoost, we can tell if they are delivering promised speeds. I have the Blast 50/10 on Comcast and it peaks to 70 or so downstream so its the PowerBoost that is faking the speed tests. And this is on Comcast's own speed test.
FactChecker
Premium Member
join:2008-06-03

FactChecker

Premium Member

Re: Once they ditch PowerBoost

The report shows the speed w/o powerboost

thedragonmas
Premium Member
join:2007-12-28
Albany, GA
Netgear R6300 v2
ARRIS SB6180

thedragonmas

Premium Member

Re: Once they ditch PowerBoost

said by FactChecker:

The report shows the speed w/o powerboost

funny, when i had the 20/2 service from my isp, the samknows reports consistently showed my service much much higher. the "time out" isnt long enough

somms
join:2003-07-28
Centerville, UT

somms

Member

XMission no issue



Good here...

puddleglum
join:2012-12-23
Ogden, UT

puddleglum

Member

Re: XMission no issue

That's only because you are lucky enough to get Utopia!!! If you are stuck going through CenturyLink's old, oxidized copper like me, you'd be lucky to get 1/100th that speed.

IowaMan
Premium Member
join:2008-08-21
Grinnell, IA

IowaMan to somms

Premium Member

to somms
I'd **** myself with those kind of speeds


I'm not THAT bad off but damn!

Twaddle
@sbcglobal.net

Twaddle

Anon

No news -Move on

Until the FCC is given the power/authority to fine enforce or require ANYTHING form the telcos regarding Internet all this is nothing but a "smoke up your ass" shell game to deflect any real investigation into what's going on. Right now the FCC is solidly in the back pocket of the big telcos and they are not going to stop their endless rate surcharges, failure to deliver or customer abandonment. (Too much profit to be made and too many pay-offs in the wings )
What is needed is equitable regulation of the industry so that both the consumer gets a real 21st century Internet experience and the telcos can make "some" money. Naturally that won't happen (as the current airline industry can attest to) and the American consumer is left out in the wild, staked out like some goat. I don't expect ANYTHING to change with the HSI/TV/PHONE industry except MORE increases in total cost dollars paid and less and less delivery/service and support.

batterup
I Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ

batterup

Premium Member

EZ to deliver 1kbs up to 100tBs.

I'm stuck on DSL FOREVER; I'll be PC and say no more.

Verizon's advertised speed for the cheetah DSL is
quote:
High Speed Internet Enhanced
1.1 to 15 Mbps, 768 Kbps Upload
I'm on a super secret super-charged cheetah plan.

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