Cox had the fastest median download speed of any fixed-line broadband provider in the U.S. during the second quarter, achieving a mark of 196.73 Mbps, according to Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence report for the quarter.
Cox outpaced Xfinity, which finished in second place with a median download speed of 184.08 Mbps during the period of measurement. Meanwhile, Verizon, which came in first during the first quarter with a 184.36 Mbps media download speed, dropped to fourth place overall during the second quarter with a 171.01 Mbps media download speed, sitting behind third-place Spectrum, which at 183.74 Mbps, narrowly missed second place.
The results of this horse race come as there is increasing focus not on who has the fastest broadband horse in the U.S., but instead the notion of making sure all the players adhere to higher minimum requirements for broadband speeds.
That is what Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has in mind with her recent proposal that the broadband minimum in the U.S. be raised from 25 Mbps for download and 3 Mbps for upload to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload.
Globally, the U.S. ranked in eighth place for median download speed at the end of June, registering a mark of 153.80 Mbps much higher than the 118.15 Mbps median it registered in June 2021.
However, the U.S was in sixth place a year ago, and has since been surpassed by China, which jumped from 10th place to third place globally in the course, and tiny, densely-populated Macau, which is now just ahead of the U.S. in seventh place.
This week’s Ookla report also showed that among fixed-line providers, the highest median upload speed in the second quarter belonged to Frontier at 113.21 Mbps. Verizon came in second (112.36 Mbps), AT&T Internet (112.27 Mbps) was third, Xfinity (18.88 Mbps) registered fourth, and CenturyLink (12.02 Mbps) placed fifth.
For lowest latency, Verizon and Frontier led all U.S. providers, both achieving 8 millisecond median latency, while Cox followed with 11 ms., AT&T Internet finished at 12 ms., and Xfinity wrapped up the top five with 14 ms. median latency.