The Wicked Witch of ISPs asks: "Mirror, Mirror on the wall, which network is the fastest streamer of them all?" The Mirror responds: "If your name is AT&T, it ain't you."
Streaming-video services need big pipes to dispense all those bytes as quickly as possible to media-hungry consumers. So it is crucial for companies such as Netflix
I found the findings a mixture of "well, I expected that" and "how can that be?" It won't surprise most people that the fastest ISP uses fiber-optic technology, but it may be a bit of a shock that the slowest of the fiber/cable ISPs also uses fiber. The six other companies in that category all use cable.
Following are the results of the cable and fiber ISP tests. I have to point out that I had to extrapolate the speed figures from the Netflix graphic that was posted on its "Tech Blog" Web page. Verizon's
Cable and Fiber ISPs |
Speed (Kilobits Per Second) |
---|---|
Verizon Communications FiOS Fiber |
2,550 |
Charter Communications Cable |
2,450 |
Comcast Cable |
2,425 |
Cablevision Systems Cable |
2,400 |
Time Warner Cable Cable |
2,380 |
Cable One Cable |
2,315 |
Cox Communications Cable |
2,310 |
AT&T Fiber |
2,260 |
Source: Speeds extrapolated from Netflix graphic.
Quite a bit further behind came the DSL deliverers. Included is Clearwire's
DSL and Wireless ISPs |
Speed (Kilobits Per Second) |
---|---|
CenturyLink DSL |
1,760 |
Windstream DSL |
1,720 |
AT&T DSL |
1,575 |
Frontier Communications DSL |
1,500 |
Verizon Communications DSL |
1,460 |
Clearwire | 1,300 |
Source: Speeds extrapolated from Netflix graphic.
Bragging rights
It's a dog-eat-dog ISP world. Just witness the Verizon FiOS vs. Comcast Xfinity wars. I wouldn't be surprised if these speed figures show up in a FiOS commercial soon. It wouldn't shock me either if somehow Verizon tried to use its bragging rights in the ISP world to give it an edge in its wireless competition with AT&T.
But the speed testing probably won't help Netflix restore investor confidence after its recent gaffes involving splitting off its DVD-rental service and its streaming-video services. Something like that doesn't happen quickly.
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