FCC: Your Net speed averages half what you were sold


When you signed up for your current Internet service, the provider you chose indicated you’d get speeds “up to” a certain amount — say, 8 Mbps.

But good luck actually achieving that. According to a study released by the Federal Communications Commission [PDF], most U.S. broadband users get about half the speed they were promised.

From Ars Technica:

After crunching the data, FCC wonks have concluded that ISPs advertised an average (mean) “up to” download speed of 6.7Mbps in 2009. That’s not what broadband users got, though.

“However, FCC analysis shows that the median actual speed consumers experienced in the first half of 2009 was roughly 3 Mbps, while the average (mean) actual speed was approximately 4 Mbps,” says the report. “Therefore actual download speeds experienced by US consumers appear to lag advertised speeds by roughly 50 percent.”

Now, it should be noted that this is not necessarily a case of selling customers one thing and deliberately providing a lesser product. Many factors affect broadband speeds: Internet congestion, problems with network routers, Wi-Fi interference, defective customer equipment, slow computers and malware. With DSL, your speed can be affected by your proximity to the service’s transmission equipment, while cable modem service can be affected by the number of people in your neighborhood using the service at the same time.

The issue, instead, is making sure customers understand the reality of what they’re being sold. That might be done, Ars writer Nate Anderson explains, using a label that provides a lot more detail about a broadband provider’s service. It’s similar to the “Schumer box” used to outline consumer loan provisions, or the nutrition label found on food packages.

This particular label was designed by the New America Foundation [PDF] for the FCC. Giving consumers more information in an easy-to-understand format is a win for everyone, and is something ISPs should have been doing all along.

So how does your real connection speed differ from what your ISP says is your “up to” speed? Check it using tests at Speakeasy, Speedtest.net or Bandwidth Place.

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Dwight Silverman | Techblogger, social media manager

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