It’s no secret that since the COVID-19 pandemic began, we all have had to rely on our internet connection more than ever. With all this added demand for faster speeds, have internet providers been able to rise to the challenge and give customers the speeds they need to stay connected?
To get a closer look at how the US is bridging the digital divide, the team at HighSpeedInternet.com analyzed and ranked the average internet speeds of the top 100 largest metropolitan areas in the US using data from over 1.7 million speed test results.
Pulled from the company’s full report, here are the top 10 metros with the fastest internet, based on mean download speed:
- Washington D.C. (129.1 Mbps)
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (127.4 Mbps)
- San Francisco, California (126.1 Mbps)
- New York City, New York (124.2 Mbps)
- Boston, Massachusetts (123.6 Mbps)
- Baltimore, Maryland (120.9 Mbps)
- San Antonio, Texas (119.7 Mbps)
- Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (117.2 Mbps)
- Las Vegas, Nevada (117.1 Mbps)
- Houston, Texas (116.2 Mbps)
Washington, D.C., tops the list with an average download speed of 129.1 Mbps – that’s almost 40 Mbps faster than the average internet speed in the largest 100 metros.
A total of 37 metros had average download speeds of over 100 Mbps, and six metros averaged over 120 Mbps. We also provided a ranking for median download speeds, which may represent what the “average person” has in a metro; mean speeds appear faster because the average includes people who have very fast internet speeds that could be 10 times faster.
But over the past 12 months, internet speeds seem to be improving – sometimes dramatically – across the board. Speeds increased along with the needs of the pandemic – more people worked from home, did remote schooling, accessed healthcare, and stayed home for entertainment.
We can expect speeds to continue to improve in the largest 100 metros as the demand for faster internet grows alongside more options for remote work and online schooling.