FiOS: Fastest Landline Service
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Verizon offers the
fastest download speeds on the Internet with its FiOS service, which is
available in 12 states along the East Coast and in Washington, D.C. FiOS
regularly hits download speeds in excess of 35 megabits per second, or about
4.5MB of file downloads per second. As of June 2012, Verizon upped the speed on
its packages; at the highest speeds, FiOS is faster than most wireless routers,
at 300 megabits per second. Upload speeds are also speedy. By way of
comparison, most cable Internet service packages, including self-termed
"speed boost" packages have a peak transfer rate of about 30 megabits
per second and sustained transfer rates of around 8 to 10 megabits per second.
The drawback to FiOS is the limited number of places where Verizon has run
fiber to the home.
4G LTE: Fastest Wireless Service
After FiOS, the next
fastest Internet connection to be had in the U.S. is a 4G cellular data plan.
However, 4G has become something of a meaningless term in the U.S. There were
three competing standards; one of them -- Sprint's WiMax -- is slowly being
retired, and the major carriers appear to be standardizing on LTE connections.
The fastest providers tend to vary by region and by the number of users on the
network at any given time. Depending on the carrier, your average download
speeds on a 4G network can be anywhere from 2 to 4 megabits per second or less
for some of the smaller networks, up to 25 or 30 megabits per second. For the
two largest carriers, Verizon and AT&T, PC Magazine rates the average
download speed at around 11 to 12 megabits per second.
Price and Data Caps
Beyond available
coverage areas, the other aspect that drives Internet connections is price.
FiOS gets expensive as a fixed rate monthly service; it can be triple or
quadruple the cost of a comparable cable Internet package on its own. Many
service providers bundle services, in part to avoid spending more money in
infrastructure. Cable Internet providers may not be as fast as FiOS, but they
can combine telephone services, cable TV and cable Internet into one bill. From
their perspective, it all uses the same cable connection, the companies just
get to charge more. Bundle deals also happen with wireless data plans, but
they're less common. Wireless data plans are also likelier to cost more for
greater bandwidth consumption; the benefit, of course, is that your Internet
connection isn't tied to your home and can go with you anywhere you have
wireless coverage.
Value-Added Features
Many
Internet service providers used to provide a certain number of email addresses
to their customers; some still do, although this service is less common as
customers move to Yahoo Mail or Gmail to have an email address that doesn't
have to change or be abandoned if they move. Other Internet service providers
give a free subscription to Norton Antivirus to their subscribers, as a way to
proactively slow down the propagation of malware and viruses. All internet
service providers are judged rightly or wrongly by their support services. Most
route their calls to the Philippines or India, especially outside of normal
business hours. Most can also have a technician on site within 48 hours or less
if there's a problem that can't be solved remotely