In the third quarter Cox overtook Charter for the fastest download speeds among fixed broadband providers, according to Ookla’s latest Speedtest Intelligence report.
With the fastest median download speed in the U.S. at 260.09 Mbps, Cox closed in on the narrow lead Charter held during the first and second quarter of this year. Charter’s Spectrum had a median download of 245.88 Mbps, and Comcast’s Xfinity was third fastest with a median download speed of 236.07 Mbps.
AT&T Internet (234.20 Mbps), Frontier (205.82 Mbps), Optimum (203.45 Mbps) and Verizon (184.86 Mbps) completed the list of top download speeds.
Once again AT&T Internet had the fastest median upload speed at 188.60 Mbps, a jump from its second-quarter median of 166.86 Mbps. Frontier kept its second position at 169.66 Mbps, up from 164.84 Mbps in Q2.
Verizon’s median upload speed was third at 91.36 Mbps, and Cox was a “distant fourth” at 30.60 Mbps, followed by Optimum (29.16 Mbps), Xfinity (22.30 Mbps) and Spectrum (14.82 Mbps).
Ookla’s analysis from Q2 and Q3 have shown the three cable giants, Cox, Charter and Comcast, continuing to trail upload rates from their competitors.
Over the last year fiber providers have pushed symmetrical speeds whereas cable operators have continued serving asymmetrical offerings, as Fierce has previously noted. Although, Comcast this week was the first to deploy DOCSIS 4.0, touting 2-gig symmetrical speeds that will be available as soon as next week in one market.
Download speeds by location
At the state level, Florida showed the fastest median download speeds over fixed broadband in the U.S. at 240.32 Mbps, while Alaska had the slowest median download speed at 81.79 Mbps.
Spectrum was the fastest fixed broadband provider in the biggest number of states; eight. Xfinity was fastest in seven states. Cox and Google Fiber were fastest in five states each, followed by Verizon and AT&T Internet in two each.
Allo, Bluepeak, Comporium, Frontier, GCI, MetroNet, Midco and USI each claimed the fastest internet speeds in one state.
Among the 100 most populous cities in the U.S., Raleigh, North Carolina, took the top spot as the fastest for median download speeds (291.53 Mbps), while Atlanta, Georgia, had the slowest (93.94 Mbps).