In my posting earlier this week about Google’s evil scheming with Verizon to ruin the Internet, I mentioned how far behind the U.S. is compared to the rest of the postindustrial West in broadband Internet speed (though, of course, we pay a lot more than Europeans and Asians do for the privilege of slower Net access). So I thought it might be interesting for readers around the U.S. and around the world to compare Internet speed and pricing for access.
I ran a few tests on my Net connection this morning, all within a few minutes of one another, and here are the results:
SpeedTest.net:
InternetFrog.com’s Speed Test:
My ISP, Cablevision’s Optimum Online, promises download speeds of 15 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 Mbps. As you can see, the reality, at least for download, is quite different. For this service, I pay $45 per month… and that’s with the $5 discount I get for also being a subscriber to Cablevision’s cable TV service.
What’s your Internet speed, and what do you pay for it? At let us know where you are, too, of course.
(If you have a suggestion for a QOTD/QOTW, feel free to email me. Responses to this QOTW sent by email will be ignored; please post your responses here.)
I’m in the UK and have cable broadband with 20MBps for £20 per month (that’s about $31) – but it comes as part of a TV/phone/internet package that totals £40 pcm. The great thing for me is that it really IS 20MBps, because my provider (Virgin Media) is the best at giving its customers exactly what they pay for in terms of download speeds.
3M/s in the UK (which is generally slightly ahead of the US but way behind Europe and Japan). That’s slow by UK broadband standards, because I’m three miles from the nearest telephone exchange and there aren’t enough rich early adopters round here to get the area onto FTTC/FTTH any time soon.
…same price as Dan, but I could halve that if I didn’t care about reliability or having multiple static IPs at home.
Dan, I’m with Virgin Media (only 10MBps though), not quite sure what I’m paying for it off the top of my head but it’s pretty cheap.
What’s interesting is the discrepancy between the three tests. I got 9.5, 0.5 & 2.5MBps from those three in the same order MAJ gave. Which one of these tests is the most reliable?
I live in the foothills of GA. I pay $50/mo for 3MB DSL (also includes the most basic of telephone with NO bells or whistles). I get 2.8MB download with 4.4MB upload speeds. I live in an area where the highest speed I can get is 6MB for another $5.
I’m in Brooklyn, and we pay $50/mo to Time Warner. My results are:
SpeedTest.net:
Download – 9.69 Mbps
Upload – 0.44 Mbps
Bandwidth Place:
Download – 9686 kbps
Upload – 467 kbps
InternetFrog.com:
Download – 8.81 Mbps
Upload – 9.34 Mbps
The first two tests consistently give me “above-average” download speed and “below-average” upload speed (compared to SpeedTest.net’s “ISP average”), but InternetFrog consistently gives me comparable speeds, ranking both as close to Ethernet speed (10 Mbps) in the broadband category. Why the inconsistency, I wonder?
Speed Test: 11 Mpbs download, 1mpbs upload (I did it again and ended up with 14mpbs download).
Bandwidth Place:
Download Speed: 10876 kbps (1359.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1020 kbps (127.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
11.35/5.18(?) from Internet Frog.
I am on a wired connection, so that may be a factor too. I pay 45 CDN which includes a 5 dollar discount for having bundled cable with that. My package also has a 60gig/month cap with a 1 dollar per gig charge above that.
31 Mbps/sec down, 22 up with FIOS at $38.99 a month. Couldn’t be happier. Kicking Time Warner to the curb was very satisfying.
I’ve got Cablevision too, and got similar results: 2.22 / 1.76.
I pay $50/month, split with my roommates. Quite annoyed to realize that I’m not getting what I pay for…
5 Mbps down, 512 kbps up and it’s 45 dollars a month including the phone line
but I’m from Argentina
FIOS in the U.S. as well, promised 25/15 for my $38 or so per month (bundled with cable and phone, so just estimate):
SpeedTest: 30Mb/s down and 20Mb/s up.
InternetSpeedTest: 13/5
InternetFrog: 28/9
Discs? I don’t need no steenkin’ discs…
I just have earthlink DSL. I went with the cheapest option @ $30/mth. I think it’s supposed to be 1.5mb/s
I can’t test it right now, so I don’t know what I’m actually getting. I typically don’t dowmload any big files, so it’s not really a concern. I’d like to upgrade but don’t feel like paying for it.
I’m in the UK, I pay £15 per month for O2 20m broadband, I average out at about 13m which isn’t bad. I was paying the same to TalkTalk for what was supposed to be 10m, but ended up being less than 1m usually. Funny how O2 can get it so much faster down exactly the same line!
If you’re lucky enough to be in a Virgin cabled area, you can get 50m (if you take the TV, phone and internet package you can get a really comprehensive deal for about £45 per month).
I’m in Italy, using Fastweb with a Download near 10Mb/s (upload around 7Mb/s). The cost is 35 Euros a month (approx. USD 45.00) but that also includes unlimited phone calls within Italy, fax service and voice mail.
I think cable TV comes with for another 10 eruo a month but Italian TV is so bad (thank you, Berlusconi) that I opt out of owning a TV and just use the internet to catch what I want from British, US, and European TV.
I’m getting over 3.5 on my mobile broadband wifi hotspot (yes, I cracked and got one of those MiFi thingies) which I use when I’m out of range of my home wifi. Home wifi is a broadband which at peak times can be as slow as 6, but is usually a bit closer to 10. That’s UK.
I am at 17.47Mbps own and 6.45 up with charter cable I think the internet portion is 50$ per month
and thats in scenic spartanburg, SC
I’m in New Zealand which does not have very good internet either so I can sympathise.
Results are:
SpeedTest: 4.2Mb/s down 0.66Mb/s up
Bandwidth Place: 2.1Mb/s down 0.63Mb/s up
InternetFrog: 1.08Mb/s down 0.60Mb/s up
I got quite variable rates, not sure what this means. I’m connected wirelessly, so that might also have an effect.
We pay NZ$59.95(~US$42)/month for a 20GB cap. If we go over this the download speed drops to about 64kB/s which is painfully slow.
I’m in The Netherlands on the UPC cable network. I pay 30 euros per month for my Internet connection and I have to pay 16.80 euros for the required TV package.
My connection, which is called Fiberpower 30 is stated as being 30 Megabits down, 3 Megabits up (I could have gotten a 60/6, 90/6 or a 120/10 connection, but those are 40/50 and 70 euros and the 30 Mbps was plenty fast enough for me).
Speedtest.net results are
29.22 Mbps down
2.83 Mbps up
http://www.speedtest.net/result/915015322.png
Which is pretty close to the stated speeds.
I’m a member of a collective https://wifiny.net/ that has a point-to-point wireless network in the East Village Lower East Side and Williamsburg of NYC. I host equipment (repeaters) to enlarge the network and have 24 hr. access for $300/year.
It isn’t huge, but it is a bit of thumbing my nose at the big providers and appeals to my punk-cred roots. This outfit is a member-supported carrier class internet provider.
Speed Test said 1.42 Mb/s download and 1.21 Mb/s upload and the ping took 22 ms.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/915507625.png
That’s fine for what I do with the internet.
$57.95 for non-bundled Comcast service that claims to be 15 Mps Down and 2 Mps Up (16/3 Mps with “Power Boost”).
Speedtest.net (14.65/2.95 Mps) and Bandwidth Place (10816/2984 kbps) agree with that, but I think they are influenced by that “Power Boost”
Internet Frog (5/1 Mps) more closely matches the speeds I tend to get in day to day practice.
I live in the US and pay $58 a month for Comcast cable internet. I don’t get cable television so no discount there. It ended up being roughly the same cost as DSL when I figured in all the phone fees for a landline I wasn’t otherwise using, and it has a faster and more reliable connection (both have had inconvenient outages every few months or so).
For download speed I get:
15.43Mbps according to TestMy.net
20.72Mbps according to Speedtest.net
15.695Mbps according to Bandwidth Place
12.49Mpbs according to Internet Frog
All of them list upload speeds between 4.4 and 5Mbps.
I am paying for 12Mbps download speed.
32 MB down, 5 up, Comcast in Seattle, $70/mo
http://www.speedtest.net/result/915814526.png
Not my best time, but a good d/l speed. I host my own website so I prefer a bigger pipe. FIOS gives me speed for not a huge rate.
They offer the 25/15 plan for $64.99/month but I often get 30/20 out of it and I pay less because I get it as part of a bundle that includes TV and Phone for $119.00/mo
In Spain we use ADSL, officially getting 20 mb/s download and 1 mb/s upload.
In reality is is 13 mb/s download and 0.7 mb/s upload.
We pay 50 euros a month, and that includes the telephone line as well.
Gensing in Italy – I feel your pain. I’ve been reliably informed by Italian friends that Italian tv is actually worse than Spanish tv, which was a shocking revelation! Although I don’t think you get the 20 minute advert breaks that we have here. 20 mins of ads and then 25 mins of crap television.
Everyone downloads here. It keeps us sane.
Rogers Cable, New Brunswick, Canada.
10Mpbs download 512k upload, 60GB monthly bandwidth, $47/month CDN
Actual download speed on these tests varies a fair bit, but generally ranges somewhere between 4.5 to 6.5 Mbps download, and a relatively consistant 480kbps upload. All things considered, I’m pretty happy with it.
5856 kbps down
811 kbps up
$50/month
melbourne, oz
I’m from Melbourne Australia and with Optus broadband on an ADSL 2+ plan. Best result:
Speedtest
Dld: 11.80 mb/s
Uld: 0.69 mb/s
Plan cost $69.95/month. Also I’d be interested to know peoples download limit overseas? We have only just become privy to 50GB p/month here (plus 70GB of peak) and 6 months ago were pating the same for total 25GB.
When we exceed limits, speed is reduced to dial-up modem speeds…. painful