Congratulations, Pocatello Idaho. You have American’s slowest Internet. That’s according to a new study by Pando Networks that tracked Internet download speeds and completion rates across the country for five months this year.
Pando Networks found some pretty stunning differences nationwide. The coastal and Mid-Atlantic states had the fastest and most reliable Internet (with Rhode Island scoring highest) while the Mountain states and Midwest did the worst.
It also reinforces what we already know about the digital divide: wealthier communities have better Internet service, while poorer communities tend to have worse. Pocatello, Idaho, um, poked along at a mere 251KBps, while tony Andover, Mass., was zipping at 2,801KBps.
If you want to move somewhere with super fast Internet, give one of these cities a try. They were the top ten in the nation:
Andover, Mass: 2801KBps
Lynnwood, Wash: 2474KBps
Woodbridge, Va: 2093KBps
Kent, Wash: 1858KBps
Burke, Va: 1674KBps
West Hartford, Conn: 1640KBps
Clementon, NJ: 1474KBps
Bay Shore, NY: 1443KBps
Santa Monica, Calif: 1428KBps
Lutherville Timonium, Md: 1400KBps
While most cities with sizable tech footprints also did well, a few did surprisingly poorly (I’m looking at you Atlanta, L.A., and Chicago):
Atlanta: 665KBps
Austin: 911KBps
Boston: 862KBps
Chicago: 678KBps
Los Angeles: 672KBps
New York: 805KBps
Providence, RI: 869KBps
San Francisco: 912KBps
Seattle: 1017KBps
And now behold! Interactive charts!
Average Completion Rate by State
Average Download Speed By State (Kilobytes Per Second)
In terms of providers, Comcast Cable did the best. It had average speeds of 871KBps, with a 90% completion rate. And New Yorkers, if you suspect your Time Warner cable sucks, you’re right! Road Runner (Time Warner’s Internet service) did the worst in the nation. In New York State, it had average speeds of just 720KBps, with an 87% completion rate.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was mobile, where AT&T did the best with 416KBps, Verizon was at a measly 216KBps, while Alltell scored the lowest at 155KBps.
I think the most interesting takeaway for me personally is that with my combination of Comcast, AT&T and San Francisco, California, I’m at the vanguard and really ought to stop all my bitching.
You can keep up with Mat Honan, the author of this post, on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
