A new report from High Speed Internet revealed which states have the fastest—and the slowest—internet speeds in the U.S. The results may surprise you.
Anyone turning to the internet for information or entertainment will all tell you the same thing: They’re impressed with the fastest internet. It’s satisfying when search results are instantly provided. Conversely, it’s an overwhelming combination of frustration and annoyance when something streamed endlessly buffers. While you may not have immediate control, if you ever have the opportunity to choose a new state in which to live and you prioritize fast internet speed (and avoid the slowest), help is at your fingertips. High Speed Internet, which analyzes and tests it, has just released data ranking states (as well as Washington, D.C.) with the fastest and slowest internet speeds.
High Speed Internet’s report noted: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) still defines broadband internet as 25 Mbps and up, but thankfully, even the slowest average internet speeds in each state are at least double that number.
In the company’s 2020 fastest and slowest internet speeds report, the top 10 average speeds ranged from 67.2Mbps to 84.1Mbps. This year, 34 states topped that average speed, and all but seven states exceeded 67.2Mbps.
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The average internet speed in the United States is 99.3Mbps (the mean average speed from speed test data, median speed was 49.5Mbps).
The more rural states like Montana, West Virginia, Idaho and Wyoming ranked as the states with the slowest internet speeds.
Fastest in the east and west
- Rhode Island (129.0 Mbps) beating out two-time former record holder Maryland
- New Jersey (120.4 Mbps)
- Delaware (119.1 Mbps)
- Maryland (118.2 Mbps)
- District of Columbia (DC) (117.7 Mbps)
- Virginia (116.7 Mbps)
- Massachusetts (116.4 Mbps)
- Texas (110.7 Mbps)
- California (110.0 Mbps)
- New York (108.8 Mbps)
Slowest in the country
- Montana (54.4 Mbps)
- West Virginia (55.2 Mbps)
- Idaho (55.4 Mbps)
- Maine (56.3 Mbps)
- Wyoming (60.0 Mbps)
- Alaska (61.5 Mbps)
- Arkansas (64.9 Mbps)
- South Dakota (70.8 Mbps)
- Iowa (71.8 Mbps)
- New Mexico (72.2 Mbps)
The findings were more than a year in the making. HighSpeedInternet.com data analysts looked at data from more than 1.7 million speed test tool results from Feb. 1, 2020, to March 16, 2021. The company wanted to ensure accurate analysis for home internet speeds from laptops, desktops and home-connected devices, so it filtered out incomplete, duplicate and cellular phone data. After filtering, it used a total of 1,761,079 results generated from its internet speed test tool to rank U.S. states as the fastest and slowest for average internet speeds.
The company also offers a list of the fastest internet providers, based on 3 million speed tests.
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