While we think fast speeds are paramount, ensuring a minimum acceptable experience is also a worthy measure of a network’s quality. Limiting any operator from having more than 2/3 of samples ensures actual competition in a zip code rather than including areas where one competitor dominates the market. Operators are considered present in a zip code if they have at least 3% of the samples in the area and show samples on multiple devices. To meet the definition of “competitive” in the U.S., a zip code must contain samples from at least three top national competitors (those who have at least 3% of market share at a national level), but no competitor can have more than 2/3 of the samples in that zip code. We will be using Competitive Geography for the first time in the 2019 Speedtest U.S. We’re introducing a new Competitive Geography filter to ensure a balanced comparison of national wireless operators by eliminating geographic outliers. Others also serve vast rural areas, where it’s more difficult and expensive to provide fast speeds. Some focus their efforts more in urban areas, where economies of scale make fast speeds easier and cheaper to provide. Not all providers serve the same geographic area.

We place the most emphasis on the median speeds as those represent what most network providers’ customers will experience on a day-to-day basis. Speed Score uses a modified trimean to take speeds from the 10th percentile, 50th percentile (also known as the median), and 90th percentile, and combine them in a weighted average using a 1:2:1 ratio, respectively. Speed Score incorporates a measure of each provider’s download and upload speed to rank network speed performance (90% of the final Speed Score is attributed to download speed and the remaining 10% to upload speed because online experiences are typically more affected by download speed). This makes it easier to compare mobile operators and ISPs on several measures of speed using one metric. We created Speed Score to fully account for the range of speeds a provider offers in a single metric.

Speed is an important measure of an internet connection. Internet performance metrics for mobile and fixed broadband Speed Score ™ Here are some quick links if you want to skip ahead: We’ll also discuss how this affects our upcoming U.S. Today we’re offering an in-depth look at the definitions of our current metrics and how they can help you better understand your network. Editor’s note: A new, updated version of this article is here.Īt Ookla Ⓡ we are always researching new and better metrics to describe internet performance and coverage.

Ookla speed test higher than download