Ookla report on US broadband: mean download speeds rose 35.8% and upload speeds rose 22.0% from last year; Xfinity and Verizon were fastest broadband providers
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the latest installment of an annual ritual: Ookla's Speedtest reports have charted double-digit US speed gains for years, including a 2016 fixed-broadband report showing downloads up 42% year over year and a 2017 global report with average speeds up 30%. The throughline is that capacity keeps compounding faster than usage.
The ranking layer matters too: last year's US Speedtest report already named Comcast Xfinity the fastest broadband provider, so this year's result is less a shakeup than a confirmation — with Verizon joining Xfinity at the top, giving fiber a shared podium with cable.
First-order effects
- Xfinity extends its run as the fastest US broadband provider while Verizon enters the top tier, handing both a measurable marketing claim backed by third-party test data.
- ISPs outside the top two now compete against a published benchmark that moves ~36% a year on downloads, making lagging networks visible in every annual report cycle.
Second-order effects
- A cable-fiber tie at the top sharpens the Comcast-versus-Verizon rivalry, pressuring other carriers to fund upgrades or cede the 'fastest' framing entirely.
- Consistent Ookla rankings give consumers and reviewers a recurring yardstick, shifting some pricing power toward whichever provider can defend its speed crown each December.
Third-order effects
- If ~20-40% annual gains keep holding, regulators' fixed definitions of broadband — like the 25Mbps threshold under which Comcast already held 56% market share — will keep aging into obsolescence, forcing periodic redefinitions of what counts as adequate service.
The trend: Annual Ookla measurements are turning broadband speed into a compounding, publicly ranked arms race between cable and fiber, with regulatory definitions struggling to keep pace.