Local Fiber Investment Leads to Top Honors: Speed Report

A new report from the national internet comparison site ISP Reports ranks several fiber-rich cities among the best in the nation for internet speed. Markets with local infrastructure investments and new deployments outperformed some large markets, the authors said, and “are creating competitive broadband landscapes worth further exploration.” Residents of the Salt Lake City (UT) metro area saw an increase of 282 Mbps to reach a total of 7,215 Mbps. There, 99 percent of the city has access to broadband internet speeds, with 87 percent fiber coverage and 97 percent cable coverage. Researchers relied on a robust methodology and several data sets to achieve their findings, but the final results may not represent the speeds customers can actually access. That’s because the report data looked only at the fastest speed tier advertised (at “speeds up to” certain thresholds) rather than speeds actually achieved. Chattanooga (TN), took home top honors in its category for its speed of 17,141 Mbps.