A while ago the FCC asked Americans to become part of a test to measure actual broadband speeds versus what their provider was advertising and they got data from 9,000 people and have the results.

They have a chart that shows average download speeds throughout a 24 hour period. So you can see how much some ISPs may be affected by peak traffic.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/02/fcc-analysis-reveals-isp-speed-winners-and-losers/

The big winner is Verizon FIOS. 115% actual speeds (faster than advertised) and absolutely no drop during peak hours. The only one that pulled that feat off.

Charter, Comcast, and Cox all did pretty well too.

AT&T, Qwest, Verizon (DSL), and a few others never even reached advertised speeds.

And poor Cablevision subscribers. Wow. Maybe ya'll should get together for a class action lawsuit. Those results are criminal, barely 50% during peak hours and the rest of the 24 hour period isn't that good either.

I did not read the details of this but saw the chart yesterday. Really the chart says it all. You can tell who planned out the network correctly and who did not (or who is not sending all upload peering down 1 pipe for everyone crippling you in the same way). Could also show who is over selling nodes and upgrading to keep loads within reason .

Fiber wins! Be happy anyone sitting on that

 

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Fiber internet is a young technology. When I first got DSL in the 1990's I was getting 1.1 - 1.2 Mbps downloads on a 512 Kbps line. My current 7.0 Mbps line typically does around 6.0 Mbps. As the technology matures expect those speeds to drop down into the 80 - 95% range.

 

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That's pretty good results though, when I had cable i never broke 50% of the advertised value regardless of the time of day. Americans have it better then Canadians.

Apparently the ranting about Comcast has been overblown.

Lets check these results again when FIOS has gained more steam.

If FIOS works like dial up or DSL then I expect the performance curve to stay fairly flat (over the course of a day). The main reason why the throughput curve on cable (over the course of a day) is so pronounced is because over crowding of clients on local distribution nodes. That's why that nearly flat line of Comcast is actually pretty impressive, it shows them to be managing their network very well.

Most of the ranting I see about comcast is their caps, not the speed.

 

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Crappy customer service as well, but the speed has always been fine for me.

 

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/e loves his fios

That being said, I never really had an issue with Cox and their internet - fairly good speed, little to no downtime.

Their TV service though sucked arse - constant pixelation and horrid PQ.

 

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