therwol Loc: USA

Upgrading your country to true high speed internet is a work in progress. Until this year, we vacationed in Cumbria every year for 1-2 months. One of our friends there is in charge of the BT crews that are going out and wiring your country for true broadband. We stay on a farm that has what amounts to DSL. I never ran a speed test, but I can tell you that just watching streaming TV or video was difficult. There was constant buffering. At least someone over there is doing something about it. There are vast rural areas in the US that are not wired for internet, and the options such as microwave or satellite are not nearly as fast or reliable. When we moved to a rural area in retirement, the availability of wired internet was a major factor in choosing the house we bought.

And if someone wants to point out that 5G mobile service is going to be an answer to lack of wired internet, I would also point out that there are many areas that do not have cell service, including many areas in the county where I live.

Bayou

It's worse than that. 5G requires a whole new network of transmission towers that are much CLOSER together than cellular towers are, practically every city block, or so.

5G is a step in the wrong direction. It's for densely populated areas, and almost useless in rural....right when people are starting to realize that it's no longer necessary to live in densely populated clumps. The human trend is to spread back out. 5G assumes the opposite.

tom hughes Loc: Phila Pa

Have Fios just tested 65. Not paying for high speed. Cones with cable package. I think they offer up to 1000.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

Are you plugged into a router? If so your problem could be there. I am on Spectrum and had to upgrade to GB router to get the speed that they advertise.

pocotoo

That's close to me in Seattle. Over 300 most of the time. I have read, local phone companies, that 24 is plenty fast for streaming HD movies. Problems with a few units streaming at the same time. My issues are with WiFi.

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

All of the various cable providers play their own game in a struggle to exist.
I am fortunate to be in one of the first areas that FIOS was implemented.
Fiber is the technology of the future.
If it is offered in your area and you can afford it, there is no better option.
Bandwidth is not affected by the number of users.

Ethernet - 1Gb wired connection.


Wireless on iPhone XR

JBRIII

The best example I have of demand effect is a hotel in Dillion CO several years ago before Xmas. During the week the speed was instanteous, but on weekends the speed was really slow, no need to measure. The only way to get some max speed quarantee always would be either the company would just advertize a low rate to start with or would have to add more capacity with each knew customer. With all the new, real time uses for internet and cell phones, i.e., you walk by a store and your phone tells you that a friend just shopped there, I do not see how it will get better for any lenght of time. 5G will be fast for a time, then more uses and then ,.'@#$/^&*.

Think of it like computers, 30 years ago 64 Mb of memory cost thousands, not discussions on this site, say 16 GB ot even 32, 500x as much might just be OK. The software of today would never have run back then on a home PC even if it was known how to do it.

bhanusa Loc: Maui, Hawaii

I get my Internet through Spectrum (Comcast), paying for 100 Mbps. I was having problems getting more than 60 until support suggested I check my wireless speed. It was sent on 2G, will when I switched to 5G I consistently got 120Mbps.

Check your wireless speed,

Rongnongno Loc: FL

That is likely a cause. VHS connection must have a special modem. If you use your own, you do have a chance when complaining. If not, ask for a remote modem test.

Remember that the last mile is always the weakest. So it may not be on your hand but on the sites you access. Testing the speed on line is not enough to know what is going on.

Also another issue is what wireless you are using - if any -. It may not be capable of sustaining VHS.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

5G causes cancer, is responsible for the covid 19 and pure insanity in some folks...

(Joking but for the folk insanity)

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

And Spoons made Rosie O'Donnell Fat!

JBRIII

Rural america is going to be a big problem from where I stand. The county is one of the pootest in the state. Houses here are often 50 to 100 yards off the road and equally far apart. The ground is very rocky and all my wires, telephone and electric are below ground. A friend in the area, not on my road, was given a price of $1500 to run fiber optics to the house, his wfie got to down to $1000 and the area was cabled there. Most of the families here could never afford the hookup fees alone. Maryland is or has been the richest state by per captia income, but the county is at the bottom at half the state level. I am a liberal by any measure, but don't think I could justify why the state should pay the cost, yet without something like it, the area will either die or become poorer and certainly less educated and competitive.

Just to be clear, we can afford whatever would be provided, but don't see how many here would or how it will change. For one thing, the area is mountains which means lots of towers if they is the means. I am sure this is also all true for many other areas.

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

I got rid of Comcast in January once Google Fiber became available ... Comcast was the only service up to then at my location. I just check the speed of the 1 Gbps service I have. The download is 580 Mbps and upload is 826 Mbps. Oddly, upload is always faster than download. Often download is over 700 Mbps and upload over 900 Mbps. Great service and lower cost. I mention that unlike cable the when service is disrupted and there is no service, the Google Fiber gracefully degrades performance due to their network structure. Only have three degraded periods for a couple of hours each time since January. Degraded service I experienced was about 75-100 Mbps download and a bit faster upload. Actually this was better than I was getting from Comcast on a god day! If you can get Google Fiber service, consider switching to it.

therwol Loc: USA

I live in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and the hills and mountains are the problem here with line-of-sight internet or even cell phone and broadcast TV reception. People live isolated with hills and mountains all around them. We chose to live close to town, which is Placerville, CA, where wired internet is available. You don't have to get far out of town to lose everything. If you are lucky and live on the top of a hill, you can get TV, cell phone reception and microwave internet via an antenna on your roof. If you live between hills, you're pretty much out of luck and have to rely on satellite internet. It isn't in the same league as wired.

With school now being conducted over the internet in this county, this presents a huge problem for some students. They're handing out Chromebooks, but even Wifi Hotspots don't work everywhere. They rely on good cell phone reception.

bcplimpton Loc: Southern New Jersey

Xfinity PC Gigabit to switch then Gigabit to Router gave me this consistently with 3 different tests and different destinations.
Ping 18ms
Download 241.03 Mbps
Uplpoad 5.94 Mbps