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Just How Fast Is Your Broadband? Most People Don't Know, Study Says

by Amar Toor on March 9, 2010 at 11:00 AM

Comcast proudly promotes its broadband services, which, it says, provide the "fastest Internet speeds." TimeWarner's "RoadRunner Turbo with PowerBoost" gives you an "extra burst of speed" while evading coyotes on the information superhighway. But do you know what it really means? Just how fast is "fast?"

According to industry analysis from Forrester Research, only 41-percent of American consumers actually know how fast their broadband connections are, thanks, in large part, to what industry consultant Craig Settles calls a "legitimized con game" that Internet providers play. As NPR reports, the speeds that companies advertise are really the maximum speeds they can attain, or what Settles calls "a theoretical ceiling." Chances are, you'll usually get about 10- to 20-percent of that max velocity. Apparently, companies get away with it because most of us can't really tell. Aside from experiential red flags, like a slow-loading YouTube clip or inconsistent streaming audio, it's pretty tough for the naked eye to pick up on the more subtle differences in download speeds.

If you really want to find out just how far below the threshold your connection is running, you can always check out Speedtest.net, which will give you a diagnostic rundown of your Internet's legs. Or, if you subscribe to the "ain't broke don't fix it" philosophy like we do, you can just surf along in blissful ignorance and continue to tell yourself that your Internet really is the fastest on the block. [From: NPR]

Tags: advertising, broadband, consumers, internet, isp, speed, SpeedTest, study, top

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