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We get questions and service requests quite often regarding internet speeds. It’s a common complaint for every Internet Service Provider (ISP). We at CCC want you to be assured that we are committed to giving you the best product for your money, backed by local people. Our staff are constantly monitoring our outside bandwidth, our available bandwidth to your cable modems, and our overall system health. When things are running tight in an area, we start working quickly to improve it. In the last 2 years, we’ve nearly doubled the “nodes” in Monticello, and have increased our bandwidth to the public internet 3x. Still yet, speed tests sometimes can throw our customers (and even us) off. We want to provide this information to help our customers learn how speed testing works, and how to get the most accurate speed test.
First and foremost: Speedtest websites/apps will never tell you 100% accurate speed information from your ISP. Just today, I tested by just clicking “Begin Test” on Speedtest.net and got 9mbps on a 20mbps connection. Next test, I chose a link in Dallas and saw a 20mbps download test. Choose another link in Atlanta and you’ll see 5. “But wait, I pay for 20″ you might say… And you are. You are getting a 20-meg connection from your modem to the public internet. No ISP will guarantee 20-megs to EVERY corner of the globe, through every hand-off in between and to every server on the web. They cannot control anything beyond their connection to their hand-off to the internet.
We have a speedtest server that will tell you how fast your speed is on the network we 100% control. If this is ever below 80% of your subscribed speed plugged into your modem, please let us know immediately so we can find the issue. That server is at http://speedtest.ccc-cable.com/speedtest.
Second, you’ll never see 100% of your speeds on a wifi connection using a smartphone. Wifi is a public radio frequency and for current routers off the shelf, there are only 3 usable “channels,” meaning that you will most likely get interference from other routers nearby, especially if you’re in an apartment or dense neighborhood.
Thirdly, a speed test will only show how fast the connection is between that server you are testing to and your computer. So, if there is another computer in the house surfing, or a TV on netflix, your speed will be only what’s left of the service being used.
The best way to test your speed is with a computer plugged into your cable modem with every other internet device in the home shut off. Your ISP, no matter how good they are, will only guarantee speeds to the back of the modem. And then test to multiple places on the speedtest sites. It still won’t be perfectly accurate, but it can most likely be within 80% of true speed.
- TJ Scott
Director Of Operations
