Tag: Consumer

Ookla Research™ Articles
| May 23, 2023

U.S. Airports Have Fastest Free Airport Wi-Fi, Chinese Airports Have Faster Mobile

Consumer

The summer travel season is about to officially begin across the northern hemisphere and we’re back with fresh data for our series on airport Wi-Fi performance. This year we examined mobile Wi-Fi on free Wi-Fi provided by the individual airports as well as mobile speeds at some of the busiest airports in the world during Q1 2023. While airports in the United States top the list of fastest free airport Wi-Fi, the fastest mobile speeds we saw were in China. Read on for a specific look at internet performance including: download speed, upload speed, and latency.

U.S. airports have fastest airport Wi-Fi

Speedtest Intelligence® showed two U.S. airports at the top of the list for free airport Wi-Fi with Fort Lauderdale’s Hollywood International Airport Terminal 3 and San Francisco International Airport showing median download speeds of 157.60 Mbps and 156.66 Mbps, respectively, during Q1 2023. This represented a small drop for SFO since our November analysis but an increase for FLL. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (143.42 Mbps), John F. Kennedy International Airport (136.06 Mbps), and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (136.02 Mbps) rounded out the top five with three additional SSIDs from FLL following closely behind with median download speeds from 122.07 Mbps to 134.62 Mbps.

Chart of Mobile Internet Performance Over Free Wi-Fi at Select Airports

As we’ve seen in most recent analyses, the airports with the fastest Wi-Fi are international hubs that passengers from around the world pass through on their way to all kinds of destinations. If you are connecting through any of these airports, you should have no trouble with internet speeds this fast. In case of video calls, upload speeds are even faster than downloads at almost all of these airports, and SFO had the fastest uploads on the list.

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport and SEA had the lowest median multi-server latency on Wi-Fi of any of the airports surveyed during Q1 2023. This means your device should see very little delay when relaying information across the web.

Shanghai tops Wi-Fi performance at global airports

Shanghai Pudong International Airport was the fastest non-U.S. airport on our list with a fastest median download speed of 118.67 Mbps. Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris (98.82 Mbps), Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (82.83 Mbps), Dubai International Airport (67.21 Mbps), and Frankfurt Airport (59.10 Mbps) followed for median download speeds at non-U.S. airports. All of these airports have internet speeds that qualify as at least good, which means you should be okay unless you want to try multi-player gaming (which is probably not your first choice on an airport layover anyway). Both Mexican airports on our list showed speeds in the slow range, so log off early and enjoy your vacation if you’re at the airport in Cancún or Mexico City.

Chinese airports have fastest mobile speeds

Get ready to connect to local mobile service or tether your phone to your laptop if you’re traveling through airports in Shanghai and Beijing and have access to 5G. Not only did Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, and Beijing Daxing International Airport have the fastest median downloads over mobile on our list at 308.51 Mbps, 304.87 Mbps, and 300.70 Mbps, respectively, during Q1 2023 — the mobile speeds at these airports were dramatically faster than the airport Wi-Fi. Salt Lake City International Airport (282.21 Mbps) and Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (259.86 Mbps) rounded out the top five.

Chart of Mobile Network Performance at Select Airports

While latency on mobile was generally higher than that on Wi-Fi, these same three Chinese airports (PEK, PKX, and PVG) also showed the lowest median multi-server latency on mobile during Q1 2023, indicating that your internet experience at these airports will have the least lag. Airports outside the U.S. performed better for latency overall with the top 16 airports for latency all located outside North America. CUN had the highest latency on mobile.

We were able to include more airports in the mobile analysis because there were more mobile samples to analyze at those airports than there were samples over Wi-Fi.

Airport Wi-Fi or mobile? Connecting on your next trip

Save yourself time by using this checklist to decide whether to try out the Wi-Fi or simply use the local mobile network. We compared internet performance on free airport Wi-Fi with median download speeds over mobile for the 38 airports we have both Wi-Fi and mobile data for during Q1 2023. Twenty-one airports had faster mobile internet than airport Wi-Fi. Twelve airports had faster Wi-Fi than mobile, and four airports showed only a slight distinction between Wi-Fi and mobile so we gave both the green check marks.

Chart Comparing Airport Wi-Fi and Mobile Speeds at Select Airports

Airport Wi-Fi has come a long way since we started this series in 2017. We hope your connections are smooth and if you’re traveling this summer, take a Speedtest® at the airport to see how your experience compares.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| September 5, 2023

College Towns Where Mobile Gaming Makes the Grade (And Where it Fails)

Consumer

August means back to school in the northern hemisphere and students across the United States are settling into carefully chosen schools, ready to embark on new adventures. While they may have chosen those schools based on academics, athletics, and even location, there may be a hidden benefit for some students: great mobile gaming. We analyzed Speedtest Intelligence® from 100 college towns across the U.S. with a large percentage of students where college is a major part of the industry to look for the kind of mobile performance that lends itself to a strong mobile gaming experience. We also took a sidebar look at 10 schools that are known for their varsity esports programs to see how they stack up.

Introducing Game Score™

We know what online gamers care most about: low “ping” in competitive games, voice chat quality and stability, quickly downloading new games and patches, live streaming, and cloud gaming. We developed Game Score to provide insight into the metrics that matter most to that game experience: download speed, upload speed, and latency and jitter measurements taken to real-world game servers. Game Score includes calculations on median performance as well as 10th and 90th percentile performance to provide a trustworthy assessment of expected network performance.

College towns with the best (and worst) mobile gaming experience

Speedtest Intelligence data from Q2 2023 reveals that three states: Maryland, Michigan, and California contain most of the top 10 college towns from our list for mobile Game Score on all cellular technologies for all providers combined.

Mobile Game Score in Select U.S. College Towns
Speedtest Intelligence® | Q2 2023
A map of the United States with map markers over select college towns. Hovering over a map marker reveals the name of the town and its Mobile Game Score.

Top college towns for mobile gaming

Students living in College Park, Maryland; Annapolis, Maryland; East Lansing, Michigan; Berkeley, California; and Ann Arbor, Michigan can expect top mobile gaming performance, though all the towns on this list do very well. Dover represented for Delaware, State College for Pennsylvania, and Providence for Rhode Island. Madison, New Jersey very narrowly missed out on the top 10. Click the map above for performance information in each town.

These would all be good towns to try your skill at MOBAs like League of Legends, real-time strategy games like StarCraft II, or Battle Royales like Call of Duty: Warzone or Fall Guys where the game mechanics typically rely on real-time communication or reaction. Who knows, your new virtual friends and rivals could be the start of your new IRL community.

College towns where mobile game performance lags

The 10 college towns with the lowest game scores based on Speedtest® data from Q2 2023 are more geographically distributed than the top 10. Socorro, New Mexico had the lowest Game Score on this list, followed by Anchorage, Alaska; Bozeman, Montana; Starkville, Mississippi; and Hanover, New Hampshire. Missoula, Montana; Fayetteville, Arkansas, Bowling Green, Kentucky; Middlebury, Vermont; and College Station, Texas rounded out the bottom 10. These college towns might be better suited for games where players try to best themselves, like practicing math with Sudoku or brushing up on adulting with a game like Florence.

Mobile gaming in places with top varsity esports programs

We took a close look at mobile Game Score in Q2 2023 for 10 locations that are home to colleges with some of the top varsity esports programs.

Mobile Game Score in Select Varsity Esports Locations
Speedtest Intelligence® | Q2 2023
A map of the United States with map markers over select college towns. Hovering over a map marker reveals the name of the town and its Mobile Game Score.

Berkeley, California, home to UC Berkeley, had the highest Game Score on this list. It was also the only location that made both the “college towns” and “varsity esports” lists, with most of these places primarily known for more than their universities. Irvine, California, second on this list, is home to UC Irvine. Dallas, Texas, home of UT Dallas, may have room to complain to the administration about their mobile performance as they had the lowest Game Score on this list. Akron, Ohio (University of Akron); St. Louis, Missouri (Maryville University); and Oxford, Ohio (Miami University) followed closely.

Most notable for the competitive nature of esports is the range of performance here, with nine of these varsity esports university towns showing mobile game scores that would not qualify them for the top 10 in the U.S. overall.

We’re excited for your feedback on mobile gaming where you’re at, so please take a Speedtest on Android or iOS then send your thoughts and results to us via Twitter or Facebook. We’re also interested in your suggestions for what locations to cover next year. You can also check month-by-month performance for your town and compare expected speeds for internet providers in the Speedtest Performance Directory™, and if you’re struggling to connect to an online game at all, check out Downdetector® for details on service outages.

If you’re a network operator interested in Game Score performance on your network, contact us.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| May 18, 2022

Four U.S. Airports Top Our List of Fastest Free Airport Wi-Fi

Consumer

The COVID-19 pandemic upended a lot of travel plans and put our series on airport Wi-Fi on hold. We’re excited to get back in the swing of things in time for the summer travel season, and we have fresh data for you on Wi-Fi speeds at some of the busiest airports in the world during Q1 2022. Our analysis focuses on Wi-Fi over mobile connections on free Wi-Fi provided by the individual airports and Wi-Fi at selected airport lounges. The good news is that every airport surveyed met the recommended speed for streaming on mobile. However, there was a large divide between the fastest airports on the list and the slowest.

Mobile Internet Speeds Over Free Wi-Fi at Select Airports

Speedtest Intelligence® showed four airports in the United States at the top of the list for free airport Wi-Fi. San Francisco International Airport showed a median download speed of 176.25 Mbps during Q1 2022, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport 171.01 Mbps, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport 113.64 Mbps, and Chicago O’Hare International Airport 85.49 Mbps. Dubai International Airport, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, and Los Angeles International Airport followed. All of these airports are international hubs that passengers from around the world pass through on their way to all kinds of destinations. Flyers waiting for connecting planes at these airports should have no trouble with internet speeds. In case of video calls, upload speeds are even faster than downloads at all of these airports, and San Francisco and SeaTac had the fastest uploads on the list. There is a wide gap in median speeds between the free airport Wi-Fi at Los Angeles International Airport and the rest of the airports on our list.

Denver International has their Wi-Fi split between two SSIDs that serve different spectrum bands, both of which showed median download speeds between 44 and 46 Mbps. Connecting to the 5 GHz “- DEN Airport Free WiFi” will get you a faster median upload speed than “DEN Airport Free WiFi 2.4.” Charles de Gaulle also has two different SSIDs for their free airport Wi-Fi though travelers can select either, “*WIFI-AIRPORT” had slightly faster median speeds than “WIFI-AIRPORT-STANDARD.”

Turkey’s Istanbul Airport was next on the list with a median download speed of 31.08 Mbps and a median upload speed of 23.80 Mbps. Spain’s Madrid Barajas Airport was the top of the bottom of our list with a median download speed of 19.76 Mbps over free airport Wi-Fi.

Four of the bottom five airports on our list were in China. Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport was faster than the other Chinese airports on the list with a median download speed of 14.69 Mbps. Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport and Beijing Capital International Airport were next on our list and showed nearly identical median download and upload speeds over free airport Wi-Fi. Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport showed slightly slower download and upload speeds than both. Mexico City International Airport in Mexico had the slowest median download and upload speeds over free airport Wi-Fi of any airport on this list.

Wi-Fi in airport lounges is often faster than free airport Wi-Fi

Free Wi-Fi is very nice to have for catching up on your life back home or reliving the glory of your vacation pics as you upload them to your social media accounts, but if you’re looking for the fastest Wi-Fi in an airport, you may want to look into other options. In many cases we found that airport lounges had faster Wi-Fi, like the United Club in Chicago and San Francisco which boasted median download speeds of 246.17 Mbps and 244.37 Mbps, respectively, during Q1 2022. The fastest club Wi-Fi download speed at LAX was at the Alaska Lounge (238.59 Mbps).

Outside the U.S., Wi-Fi speeds at airport lounges ranged dramatically. The following lounges all showed faster median download speeds than the free Wi-Fi at their respective airports during Q1 2022: the Plaza Premium Lounge in Dubai (148.96 Mbps), the Grand Lounge Elite in Mexico City (125.12 Mbps), Privium at Amsterdam’s Schiphol (121.05 Mbps), the Emirates Lounge at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle (93.31 Mbps), and the Sala VIP Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid (50.28 Mbps).

This stronger performance at airport lounges should be expected because it’s much easier to configure Wi-Fi over a small area like a single airport lounge than it is to serve an entire airport with multiple terminals. Patrons of airport lounges are also paying for the privilege, whether by the day or the year, so their expectations are higher. We did not always find this to be the case, however, so take a Speedtest® if you feel like you are not getting what you are paying for.

We were glad to see that travelers at all these airports have fast enough Wi-Fi to stream video on mobile and that there are other options available for those who need faster internet. Airports have had a lot to focus on in the last couple of years and Wi-Fi was not at the top of the list. We hope that will change as passenger volumes return to normal. If you’re traveling this summer, take a Speedtest at the airport to see how your experience compares.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| May 19, 2021

Choose Your National Park Adventure: The Best Places to Work Remotely or Digitally Disconnect

Consumer

The great outdoors provided a refuge to many last year when travel options were limited. Now that many are vaccinated, national parks in Canada and the U.S. expect a surge in the number of visitors over the summer months. To find out if those visitors will be able to stretch the definition of “remote work” or if they should count on being unplugged, we looked at mobile internet performance, availability and coverage in national parks in Canada and the U.S. We included data from Q3 2020-Q1 2021 to account for the variability in dates that parks were actually open over the last year.

Gateway Arch had the fastest download speed among U.S. parks, Waterton Lakes in Canada

Fastest parks in the U.S. are near urban areas

national-parks-tables-1

According to data from Speedtest®, U.S. travelers looking for time in the great outdoors this summer without giving up mobile performance should stick to national parks located in or near urban areas. Gateway Arch National Park, located on the shores of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri, is definitely at an advantage when it comes to accessing the faster speeds that come with urban infrastructure. Gateway Arch had the fastest median download speed on our list of national parks in the U.S. Saguaro National Park and Mount Rainier National Park share a similar story and were second and third for median download speed, respectively. Saguaro borders on Tucson, Arizona and Mount Rainier is very near to Tacoma, Washington. For comparison, the median download speed over mobile in the U.S. during Q1 2021 was 41.19 Mbps.

Denali National Park in Alaska was an exception, placing seventh on this list despite being located deep in the center of the state, far from major cities.

Quick take: Whether you’re posting from the top of the Gateway Arch or Mt. Rainier, there’s a high likelihood that you can livestream your view from national parks located near urban areas.

Slowest parks in the U.S. are in more remote locations

national-parks-tables-2

On the other hand, U.S. travelers wanting to disconnect can achieve those dreams by visiting parks that are farther from major cities or nestled deep in difficult terrain. Sequoia National Park in California had the slowest median download speed on our list at a barely manageable 1.43 Mbps — not even enough to stream a 720p video. Yellowstone was second slowest and Lassen Volcanic National Park in California third. If you’re dreaming of visiting Sequoia National Park but need a slightly faster connection, try neighboring Kings Canyon National Park where the median download speed, while still only 5.40 Mbps, was 277.6% faster.

These slow speeds are a good reminder that sometimes visiting the great outdoors can be about slowing down and enjoying the offscreen splendor. You can always post your pics later.

Canadian parks show a narrower range of speeds

national-parks-tables-3
We can’t say if Canadians are better at logging off while discovering national parks than folks in the U.S. or if service is harder to get, but there were far fewer parks with sufficient data to report on in Canada. As a result, the spread in download performance was not nearly as wide for Canadian national parks as it was for those in the U.S. And, unlike the U.S., all of the Canadian national parks that made our list were in more remote locations.

Waterton Lakes National Park had the fastest median download speed during the period. Jasper and Banff were second and third, respectively. Riding Mountain National Park had the slowest median download speed, followed by Yoho National Park and Saguenay-St. Lawrence National Park. For comparison, the median mobile download speed in all of Canada was 66.90 Mbps during Q1 2021.

38 national parks across the U.S. and Canada show 5G

5G offers the fastest speeds for travelers looking to make arrangements on the go or tether to a laptop to fit in a few hours of remote work. Data from Android users with 5G-capable phones during Q3 2020-Q1 2021 showed 36 national parks in the U.S. and two in Canada with sufficient samples to confirm 5G at least somewhere in the park.

national-parks-tables-4

Speedtest data showed 5G in 36 U.S. National Parks from Florida to Washington. If the park you want to visit is on this list, you should have access to all that 5G has to offer at least somewhere in the park.

national-parks-tables-5

In Canada, only Banff and Jasper showed a sufficient number of 5G samples to make the list.

4G Availability varies widely among U.S. parks, less so in Canada

In many cases, National Parks are located in gorgeous rural locations — exactly where you’d expect not to find 4G. We looked at 4G Availability, the percent of users on all Android devices that spend the majority of their time on 4G and above (both roaming and on-network), across both countries’ park systems to see where users can connect to a modern signal.

Because terrain varies widely in parks, the presence of 4G in a park does not mean service is uniformly available throughout that park (so prepare your emergency contact plan accordingly).

Less remote U.S. national parks have higher 4G Availability

national-parks-tables-6
Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio had the highest 4G Availability of any U.S. National Park, followed by Gateway Arch in Missouri and Hot Springs in Arkansas. All but four of the 10 U.S. National Parks with the highest 4G Availability were on the list of parks with the fastest median download speeds. Even the parks on this list that are farther from cities are still close to areas like highways that are often better served by mobile infrastructure.

national-parks-tables-7-1

If you’re looking to unplug while in the outdoors, try Sequoia National Park in California and Big Bend National Park in Texas. These two parks had the lowest 4G Availability of all the U.S. National Parks. There was significant overlap between the list of national parks with the lowest 4G Availability and those with the slowest median download speeds. With 4G Availability numbers like these, spectral efficiency will suffer and the network will likely not be able to serve as many people per cell, dragging down your mobile performance. Save yourself the frustration — log off and enjoy the view.

Only two Canadian parks show less than 50% 4G Availability

national-parks-tables-8
Elk Island had the highest 4G Availability among national parks in Canada, Waterton Lakes National Park was second and Mount Revelstoke National Park third. The national parks on this list had strong 4G Availability regardless of their proximity to or distance from population centers.

national-parks-tables-9

Kootenay National Park had the lowest 4G Availability among national parks in Canada. La Mauricie was second and Gros Morne third. It’s worth noting that the Canadian National Parks on this list had, for the most part, much higher 4G Availability than the U.S. National Parks with the lowest 4G Availability.

Mobile service not guaranteed

We’ve mentioned this throughout the article, but median performance only applies where you can actually get a signal. Below, we’ve mapped the Canadian and U.S. National Parks with the fastest and slowest speeds and the highest and lowest 4G Availability from our lists above to show how varied that coverage can be.

ookla_national_parks_can_0521

Although Waterton Lakes National Park had the fastest download speed among Canadian National Parks, travelers will only find reliable 4G service in the eastern half of the park, particularly along Highway 5, the first half of Red Rock Parkway, and the road to the Waterton Valley View Point. There’s also spotty connectivity on the Crypt Lake Trail. Meanwhile, we saw a 4G signal along most of the roads in Elk Island National Park and at the southeast and southwest corners of Flyingshot Lake. Knowing where service is and is not could help Canadians exercise their right to disconnect.

It’s not surprising that Riding Mountain National Park showed the slowest download speed among Canadian National Parks as even the major roads often only have 2G or 3G service. Visitors to this park have the best chance of connecting to 4G around Clear Lake. Parks Canada warns there is no cell coverage in Kootenay National Park and Speedtest data mostly backs this up. We saw almost no service along Highway 93 along the length of the park. There were small pockets of 4G service near the Stanley Glacier and Radium Hot Springs, but visitors facing an emergency will likely need to seek out the emergency phone at Kootenay Crossing as advised by the Park.

ookla_national_parks_us_0521

In the U.S., Gateway Arch National Park and Cuyahoga Valley National Park both show service in all or most of the park. This is not surprising given that Gateway Arch covers only 91 (mostly flat) acres in St. Louis. The gaps in 4G service at Cuyahoga Valley are few given that the park covers more than 32,000 acres (for comparison, Yellowstone has 2,221,766 acres). Either park would be good destinations if you need to be connected most of the time.

Mobile service is much poorer at both Big Bend National Park and Sequoia National Park. Visitors to Big Bend should be able to connect to a 2G or 3G signal if they are along the north and western service roads while the south and eastern service roads show spotty or no service at all. Most of the major roads at Sequoia show no service at all, with only a couple of spots where 4G peeks through. If you’re traveling to either of these parks, plan on being mostly off the grid.

5G all the time or completely disconnected, we hope this data will help you get outside and enjoy nature this summer — either with your mobile lifeline or completely off the grid. If you do visit a national park in Canada or the U.S., take a Speedtest® on Android or iOS to help us provide even better information next year.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| November 7, 2022

17 U.S. Airports With Supersonic Wi-Fi (And 12 that Are Still Stuck at the Gate)

Consumer

The holiday travel season is fast approaching in the United States and with it the anticipation of spending more time than you’d hoped at the airport. To help you know whether you’ll have the speeds you need to freely stream videos or whether you’ll need to download those shows in advance, we’ve expanded our previous analysis to examine free airport Wi-Fi at 50 of the busiest airports in the U.S. We’ve also taken a look at some of the other Wi-Fi options available at airports across the country to see how you can get the best network experience (even if you have to pay for it).

Free Wi-Fi at 17 airports beat 100 Mbps

Chart of U.S. airports with over 100 Mbps internet speeds over free Wi-Fi

Speedtest Intelligence® shows Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and San Francisco International Airport were among the fastest free airport Wi-Fi among the 50 busiest airports in the U.S. with median download speeds of 203.00 Mbps, 177.16 Mbps, and 162.38 Mbps, respectively, during Q3 2022. Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu (158.05 Mbps) and Oakland International Airport (154.62 Mbps) rounded out the top five. All 17 of the airports at this performance level showed free airport Wi-Fi that’s capable of keeping the whole family entertained online for as long as your devices hold a charge.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport splits their free airport Wi-Fi among four separate SSIDs (the name of the network you log into), which we have listed separately in these results. The performance does not vary widely between them, but you will see that airport listed here and in the list below.

20 airports with 50-100 Mbps download speed over free airport Wi-Fi

Chart of U.S. airports with 50-100 Mbps internet speeds over free Wi-Fi

John Wayne Airport, two SSIDs at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport were at the top of the next performance tier for free airport Wi-Fi. Travelers at airports with Wi-Fi speeds in this range should have enough speed to adequately rebook flights as needed on one device while streaming distractions on another.

Note that Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas has two SSIDs on this list with comparable speeds. Philadelphia has a second SSID on the list below with a much lower speed, so you’ll want to make sure you’re connecting to “Free PHL Airport WiFi” when possible, rather than “Free PHL Airport WiFi-24”.

Pittsburgh and Houston have the slowest free airport Wi-Fi among 12 airports below 50 Mbps

Chart of U.S. airports with less than 50 Mbps internet speeds over free Wi-Fi

Internet performance might be an issue at airports on this lowest tier. While one device connected to a network that’s offering 20-40 Mbps might have no issues streaming 4K video, airports are notoriously high-volume places as travelers sit and wait for flights, mobile devices in hand for as long as it takes. The real issue is that on high traffic travel days (or worse, if there’s a weather delay) the connection might bog down. Airports at the bottom of our list — like Pittsburgh International Airport (5.23 Mbps median download speed) and George Bush Intercontinental Airport (8.79 Mbps) and William P. Hobby Airport (8.90 Mbps) in Houston — have the least leeway for performance to drop and still be usable, especially in an emergency situation when folks most want to connect.

Wi-Fi speeds decreased at four airports

Our most recent global analysis of free airport Wi-Fi included seven of these airports (over eight SSIDs, with Denver having two). The nominal download speed decreased when comparing Q1 2022 to Q3 2022 in four of those airports: Sea-Tac (32.06 Mbps drop), O’Hare (29.10 Mbps drop), Los Angeles (20.74 Mbps drop), and San Francisco (13.87 Mbps drop). Dallas/Fort Worth showed a 7.02 Mbps increase in median download speed over the same period. There was no meaningful difference in download speed between quarters at Hartsfield-Jackson and on both SSIDs at Denver. We generally expect speeds to improve over time as airports and internet service providers upgrade equipment. When airport Wi-Fi speeds decline we usually expect it’s due to that infrastructure not keeping up with increases in passenger volume or internet usage.

If you’re counting, you’ll see that we have data for 49 airports above, this is because there were insufficient samples at San Diego International Airport for us to analyze to our statistical standards.

Wi-Fi on other SSIDs

While most of the free airport Wi-Fi we saw had more than adequate speeds to do most things on your mobile device, there are other Wi-Fi options if you find that the free Wi-Fi is bogged down by too many users or if you just can’t find the popup to accept the terms and conditions required to connect to the local network. We looked at Speedtest® results across SSIDs to see if your best option might be Wi-Fi at an airport lounge or club or another option entirely.

Wi-Fi at airport lounges and clubs

We found Speedtest results for seven major airport lounge and club chains that serve a variety of airports. Wi-Fi is often free at these locations for folks who have paid for the privilege of lounge access, but median download speeds varied widely by airport within each brand so the Wi-Fi alone may not always be worth the price of admission.

The Alaska Lounge was the only lounge where we saw median download speeds in excess of 100 Mbps in all locations with sufficient samples to analyze, from 100.17 Mbps in Portland to 334.23 Mbps at LAX. The United Club showed everywhere from 57.98 Mbps at Dulles to 232.85 Mbps at SeaTac, and The Delta Sky Club ranged from 57.35 Mbps in Honolulu to 123.23 Mbps in Atlanta. American Airlines Lounge had median download speeds between 5.08 Mbps in Phoenix Sky Harbor and 74.94 Mbps at SFO and British Airways Lounge Wi-Fi download speed was between 25.00 Mbps at Dulles and 56.40 at Boston’s Logan Airport.

Non-airline lounges were equally variable with The Centurion Lounge featuring download speeds from 19.55 Mbps at SeaTac to 127.25 Mbps at George Bush Intercontinental, while The Club fluctuated from 12.90 Mbps in Orlando to 108.79 Mbps in New Orleans.

With such wide variations in Wi-Fi performance we can’t recommend any specific lounge. Your best bet is to take a Speedtest at your regular connections so you know what your options are next time you fly through.

Other Wi-Fi options

Of course there are still more companies that offer Wi-Fi at airports either as part of a tie-in with another business (like your mobile operator or credit card), by subscribing to a paid service, or as part of a larger deal with the airport. Our analysis turned up Speedtest results for three such Wi-Fi options at multiple airports in the U.S.: Boingo, Passpoint, and Skyfi. Median download speeds for Boingo were between 51.41 Mbps at LAX and 149.49 Mbps at Oakland. Passpoint Wi-Fi download speeds showed a low of 10.15 Mbps in Miami and a high of 106.59 Mbps in Oakland. And Skyfi’s median download speeds ranged between 50.15 Mbps in Orlando and 100.04 at LAX. It’s worth checking out which other Wi-Fi services you might have access to before you leave the house.

Overall, travelers should be pleased with the news on airport Wi-Fi in the U.S. Speeds are mostly good and there are a lot of options for travelers if one network gets crowded. Now you just have to remember to charge your devices before you pack them. If you’re traveling this holiday season, download the Speedtest app for Android or iOS before you go, then take a Speedtest at the airport to see how your experience compares.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| November 7, 2023

Improvements in Free Airport Wi-Fi: The Holiday Gift You Didn’t Know You Needed

Consumer

With the holiday travel season on the horizon in the United States, we checked back in on our previous analysis of free airport Wi-Fi at 50 of the busiest airports in the U.S. to see what you can expect when you’re waiting for your flight home to see the family. We found you may have a lot to be thankful for this year. Three more airports have free Wi-Fi download speeds over 100 Mbps than last year. Read on for detailed performance at the specific airports you’ll be flying through.

20 airports have free fixed broadband Wi-Fi at over 100 Mbps

Fixed Broadband Internet Speeds Over Free Wi-Fi at U.S. Airports
Speedtest Intelligence® | Q3 2023
A map showing fixed broadband speeds in selected airports in the United States.

Speedtest Intelligence® shows Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and Oakland International Airport, were among the fastest free airport Wi-Fi among the 50 busiest airports in the U.S. with median download speeds of 259.37 Mbps, 210.09 Mbps, and 206.25 Mbps, respectively, during Q3 2023. Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (187.58 Mbps) and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (178.32 Mbps) rounded out the top five. San Francisco International Airport (155.99 Mbps) slipped down the list compared to last year. 100 Mbps is more than fast enough to stream video and keep the whole family entertained for as long as your devices hold a charge.

On the other end of performance, six airports (William P. Hobby Airport, Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport on SSID Free PHL Airport WiFi-24, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and Logan International Airport) showed median download speeds over Wi-Fi of less than 25 Mbps, the threshold set by the FCC to qualify as broadband. Learn more about how much speed you need for specific activities here.

There was one change to our airport list this year, which is based on passenger volume: John Glenn Columbus International Airport was removed from the list and Kahului Airport added. We have not included Kansas City International Airport or San Diego International Airport because there were insufficient samples.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport splits their free airport Wi-Fi among four separate SSIDs for different terminals, which we have listed separately in these results. The performance does not vary widely enough between them to hang out in the wrong terminal, but if you’re in Philadelphia you definitely want to choose “Free PHL Airport WiFi” when possible, rather than “Free PHL Airport WiFi-24”.

Mobile performance at 24 airports beats 100 Mbps

Mobile Broadband Internet Speeds Over Free Wi-Fi at U.S. Airports
Speedtest Intelligence® | Q3 2023
A map showing mobile broadband speeds in selected airports in the United States.

Speedtest Intelligence® shows John Wayne Airport, Midway International Airport, St. Louis Lambert International Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport, and Sacramento International Airport were among the airports with the fastest mobile download speeds on our list in the U.S. with median download speeds of 369.29 Mbps, 283.56 Mbps, 281.74 Mbps, 277.65 Mbps, and 275.87 Mbps, respectively, during Q3 2023.

Three airports (Washington Dulles International Airport, Orlando International Airport, and William P. Hobby Airport) showed median download speeds over mobile of less than 25 Mbps.

Wi-Fi or mobile? The airports where it makes a difference

Wi-Fi is the correct choice at 12 airports where download speed over mobile network service is significantly slower than the free airport Wi-Fi. Free airport Wi-Fi is 291% faster than mobile service at Orlando International Airport, 225% at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, 193% at Washington Dulles International Airport, and 110% at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Wi-Fi at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport was 91% faster than mobile, 87% at San Francisco International Airport, 79% at Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport, 72% at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, 62% at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 47% at Harry Reid International Airport, 46% at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport, and 42% at Baltimore/Washington International Airport.

Twenty-one airports had faster download speeds over mobile than over free airport Wi-Fi during Q2 2023. Mobile service at Logan International Airport was a whopping 1,037% faster than airport Wi-Fi. At Tampa International Airport, mobile was 851% faster than Wi-Fi, and mobile was 341% faster than airport Wi-Fi at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Mobile service was 3X faster than airport Wi-Fi at Salt Lake City International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, Indianapolis International Airport, Southwest Florida International Airport, and John Wayne Airport. Mobile was 2X faster than airport Wi-Fi at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Sacramento International Airport, Midway International Airport, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Portland International Airport, Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, and Detroit Metropolitan Airport. And mobile service was 1X faster than airport Wi-Fi at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Kahului Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Denver International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

We know from our work with Ekahau® that optimizing Wi-Fi at airports is particularly challenging. There can be up to 900 people waiting at each boarding gate, especially during busy travel periods. Airport IT teams have to decide how many Wi-Fi access points to put in each location and how to balance the load across all those access points. Not to mention that mobile hotspots can interfere with all this careful planning. All of this to say that the averages we report here are based on real-world data, but your experience may differ, especially on a busy travel day.

Based on this data, we predict your airport Wi-Fi experience this year will be a big improvement over last year. You can always do your part by downloading at least a few of your entertainment options before you leave the house. While you’re downloading, don’t forget the Speedtest apps for Android and iOS. Help out travelers next year by taking a Speedtest at the airport to share your experience.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| October 24, 2023

You Did It! Speedtest Reaches 50 Billion Tests!

Consumer

Speedtest® has always been about the people. Built by a few to help the many, Speedtest.net has grown from a side project to a global brand with a full set of apps, from a tool used by select gamers to test their ping to a resource used by millions of people (and one superhero) to diagnose and measure internet connectivity around the world. And anonymized data from Speedtest now fuels internet service providers, mobile operators, governments, and NGOs with the information they need to improve internet connectivity for everyone. That’s because of you. Collectively you have helped us achieve over 50 billion Speedtest results. Thank you!

50 Billion Speedtests Taken Animation

How Speedtest has grown

The internet has changed a lot since that first touch of the “Go” button. Speeds have improved dramatically, new technologies like 5G have taken hold, and more and more people have gained internet access across the world.

Timeline of median download speeds across Speedtest's history

In 2006 when we reached our first billion tests, we didn’t yet have mobile apps and the median download speed of fixed broadband for the world was 1.48 Mbps. By 2015 we had 10 billion results, the median mobile download speed was 7.87 Mbps and the median download for fixed broadband was 10.08 Mbps. Fast forward to today when we have over 50 billion Speedtest results and the world averages for mobile and fixed broadband download speed are 47.81 Mbps and 85.06 Mbps, respectively.

Thank you again for helping make Speedtest the global brand it is today. If you want to help us in our mission to improve connectivity for all, take a Speedtest or download the apps for Android or iOS to be part of a movement.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer
Ookla News

About the Author

Ookla

Ookla Research™ Articles
| December 14, 2016

6 Quick Tips to Fix Your Family’s Slow Internet

Consumer

If you secretly suspect your parents invited you home to not only see your darling face but also because they’re waiting for you to move the last 12 months of photos from digital camera to computer, you are not alone. Adult children of baby boomers are frequently tasked with tech support and a visit home is the perfect time for your family to capture your attention.

While this may seem like a chore because the internet feels so obvious to you, you’re probably rocking some untapped skills that could save your family a lot of time and frustration. If you want to give your family the gift of faster internet (and maybe show off a little), try this simple DIY home internet audit at the old homestead.

Houston, do we even have a problem?

Before you dive in with fancy fixes and shiny new equipment, it helps to get the lay of the land. Visit Speedtest.net for a free, quick assessment of how fast your parents’ internet speeds actually are. Or, connect to their Wi-Fi and then run our mobile Android or iOS app. The average download speed for the US is just over 50 Mbps for broadband connections. If you’re looking at speeds within 10 Mbps of that, you’re golden. If you’re not, you might have a little work to do. Check out that link above to see more precise city and state averages to find out what’s achievable in your hometown.

Connection type icons

Step 1. Find out what type of service they’re paying for

If your parents’ internet bill says “dial-up” anywhere on it, you’ve just found the source of slow speeds. Infrastructure matters and even the fastest internet service provider (ISP) in the world is limited by the infrastructure your family is connecting with.

Whether you ask your parents to pony up for better service or you decide to pitch in to get them a faster plan, you’re already on the road to improving your family’s connection to the internet.

Step 2. Search out their modem and wireless router

Chances are that your parents have a modem/router combination that’s leased from their ISP. Many, many people do. If this is the case, you’re looking for one device. If not, you’re looking for two that are likely in close proximity to one another.

Whether one device or two, you want a modem and router that are:

  • New(ish). While it is technically possible to use the same modem and/or router for five or more years, it’s a terrible idea if speed is at all a concern. Most modems and/or routers really only have a two- to three-year lifespan, and if your parents have waited longer than that to upgrade their equipment, those devices are probably slowing whatever speeds they are paying for waaaaay down. The latest routers operate on the 802.11ac standard. If your family’s computer is compatible with that, a new router makes a great birthday or holiday gift. Especially if you set it up for them. If you don’t know what to look for, check out PC Mag’s “Best Wireless Routers for 2016.”
  • Centrally located. Your parents’ modem is probably close to where service comes into the house. Or it’s in an office or a closet. The location of the modem doesn’t really matter because it’s just translating the service into something your parents can actually use. What does matter (and this matters A LOT) is where the router is located. If it’s out of range of where your family members actually use their Wi-Fi, they’re likely to suffer from slow speeds and dropped connections. Don’t put a router in a basement closet. That’s where your childhood trophies live. Even if a router is located near the computer, make sure it isn’t obstructed by objects like doors, chimneys or thick plaster walls that might weaken the signal. And if your parents still live in the big family home, consider setting up a wireless repeater for them.
  • Password-protected. Bandwidth matters. And while your parents probably aren’t streaming Netflix while playing a PlayStation game in one room and uploading 1,000 photos at a time in another, if their network isn’t password-protected, they might be inadvertently providing internet to the neighbors. Sharing may be caring, but it’s okay to expect everyone on the street to pay for their own internet. Especially if there’s a bandwidth hog on the block.

Step 3. Check the age of their computers

Computers, tablets and phones are a little like race horses, once they reach a certain age, they’re never again going to set any records for speed (particularly when it comes to supporting modern Wi-Fi standards like 802.11ac). It’s perfectly okay if your family is happy plugging along in a bygone age of internet speeds, but if that were true you wouldn’t be reading this article. If all the devices you come across are of a certain age, it might be time to upgrade at least one to the modern era and designate that laptop or tablet for any internet use that requires speed.

Step 4. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

You’ve probably heard this line any time you’ve reached out to a tech support professional for anything. That’s because it works! Turning a computer, router or modem off and then back on can sometimes clear up lingering issues present on the network. Simply unplug the power from both the modem and the router. After 60 seconds, plug the modem back in. Give it a minute or two to fully reboot, after which you can plug back in the router. If the internet’s running faster, you’ve already won.

Step 5. If all else fails… Call the ISP

If you’ve gotten this far, you have done an awesome job troubleshooting your family’s internet speed woes. But some things you just can’t fix on your own. So if you’ve discovered slow speeds despite a rocking router in a central location, newish devices and a squatter-free network, it’s time to call in the pros. Take heart that you’ve done your due diligence and see if you can schedule a service window before you skip town.

Step 6. Download the Speedtest app

Congratulations! You’ve probably just improved your family’s internet speeds by leaps and bounds. You’ve certainly made them feel loved. If you want to build on all this good work, download the free Speedtest app for your parents’ Windows and Mac computers. That way they’ll have a quick measure of internet speed to reference the next time they need your help. If your dad’s like mine, he’ll present you with a spreadsheet of results graphed out over time so you can really dig into the data. Yay.

For extra bonus brownie points

If your family is still experiencing internet issues, or if you just want to pay your parents back for the lifetime of free storage they’ve provided for your childhood mementos, go the extra mile with any (or all) of the following tech-y projects:

  1. Uploading and cataloging photos
  2. Installing and running antivirus software
  3. Deleting toolbars
  4. Creating a family email distribution list
  5. Managing passwords
  6. Printing address labels for their holiday cards
  7. Removing cookies
  8. Clearing the cache
  9. Blocking pop-ups

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer
Improve Your Speeds

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| March 7, 2019

13 Simple Ways to Put Your Speedtest Result to Work

Consumer

So you took a Speedtest… now what? It’s fun to measure how fast your internet connection is, but you may not realize that you can take those results a step further. We’ve gathered some fantastic ways to put your newfound information to use so you can save yourself time, money and data.

But first a very quick primer on internet testing and what speeds you should be looking for. Skip ahead if you’re already a pro.

How Speedtest works

Once you press “Go,” Speedtest sends packets of data up from your device to our network of local servers and back again. This measures the actual speed your connection is experiencing for downloads and uploads and also shows your ping (the time it takes for your connection to respond after you make a request).

how-speedtest-works-3

Not all speeds are created equal. You need a much faster connection for streaming video than you do for emailing, for example. Here’s a general guide:


Tips to get the most out of your Speedtest result

Get extra mileage out of your Speedtest result with these simple ideas.

Make work easy

Prepare for video calls

You need strong upload and download speeds for all those video conferences that are rapidly becoming the norm in today’s business environment. Take a Speedtest to make sure that your upload speed is at least 2 Mbps so you don’t drop a call with a very important client.

Work remotely (and efficiently)

Take a Speedtest to see which coffee shops will keep you connected while you “work from home.”

Know when to upload large files

If you frequently upload large files — videographers, photographers and architects, we’re looking at you — you know how very long that can take. Before you resign yourself to a lifetime of overnight uploads, experiment with Speedtest throughout the week to see when your upload speeds are best and worst. Then use that information to streamline your workflow.

Network testing and improvement

Troubleshoot your connection

Sometimes it feels like your connection is lagging. But how do you know if it’s your computer, your Wi-Fi extender, your router or something else holding you back? Run Speedtest from different devices in different scenarios (connected to Wi-Fi, hard-wired, in different rooms, etc.) to better understand where your chokepoints are. If nothing helps, try these troubleshooting tips.

Negotiate with your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

If you feel like you’re paying for a lot more speed than you’re getting, take a Speedtest. Then share the result with your ISP to see if they can help you spot neighborhood bottlenecks or maybe adjust your bill to match the speeds you’re actually receiving. Our test is your independent verification of actual speeds.

Compare mobile service

One of the best ways to see which mobile operator is right for you is to get a group of people with different operators to run Speedtest from their phones all at the same time in the same location. You’ll get quick insight into who’s really fastest in your area.

Choose a mobile operator

With background sampling turned on, Android users can see a map of which operators have the best coverage in places that matter to you. That could be at home, work, during your commute or in your favorite leisure spot.

Entertainment and leisure

Save your data

A Speedtest result can tell you whether the Wi-Fi when you’re out and about is good enough to turn your cellular connection off. If it is, you can stream content to your heart’s content without using up your data allowances.

Rate your hotel

The Wi-Fi may be free, but is it good? Take a Speedtest to see if you’re getting a real benefit or if you’re better off paying for a connection somewhere else next time.

Make sure your vacation rental is Wi-Fi-ready

Ask your potential host to share a Speedtest result from the property so you know whether you’ll have to wait until you get home to post all those vacation pics.

Boast about your gigabit connection

You love that you have the fastest connection on the block (or even in the neighborhood). Take a Speedtest and then casually share your results somewhere everyone can see.

Get game-ready

Test your ping to make sure you’re not going to get knocked out early by lag. Your gameplay deserves better than that.

Gain peace of mind

Let’s be real, sometimes it helps just to have independent verification that there really is a problem. Take a Speedtest the next time your connection is lagging and take heart… it isn’t you.

Excited to try some of these out? Try Speedtest today on the web, Android or iOS. If you’re really serious about your internet testing, check out our desktop apps.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer
Improve Your Speeds

About the Author

Isla McKetta

Ookla Research™ Articles
| August 19, 2020

How to Ensure Your Internet is Ready for Back to School

Consumer

Autumn means back to school in the Northern Hemisphere, and this year many students’ classroom experience will be at least partially digital. This transition could place a major strain on network infrastructure both at schools and in homes, so we’ve gathered some information to help teachers, students and administrators stay virtually connected.

Internet speed matters

Video conference platforms like Zoom and Google Meet only work well when connected to adequately fast internet. Zoom suggests download and upload speeds of at least 3 Mbps for sending 1080p HD video. Google support documentation recommends having both upload and download speeds of at least 3.2 Mbps for group video meetings with multiple participants.

Take a Speedtest® to ensure that your download and upload speeds are at least 3 Mbps. If your connection is not delivering the speed you need, call your internet service provider.

speedtest-desktop800

More users = less speed

Every new user you add to an internet connection places additional strain on the connection, potentially slowing it down. This is true if you’re a school administrator trying to support multiple teachers streaming from one building. It’s also true if you’re a parent trying to set up multiple remote classrooms in addition to a remote office for yourself.

When measuring the speed of your connection, try connecting all the users to your network at the same time and have them use the network in the way they normally would to see what the throughput really is.

Make sure your modem is up to date

Older modems can be a bottleneck when it comes to internet speeds. In general, if your modem is more than three years old, it might be time for an upgrade. If you’re using a cable modem, you’ll want to look for one that supports DOCSIS 3.1. A DOCSIS 3.1 modem is able to bond multiple frequency channels, offering faster speeds and a more reliable connection. If your ISP supports the technology, you can get even faster speeds by upgrading to a DOCSIS 4.0 modem, but this is not yet universally available.

Replace your modem if it’s more than three years old. Look for DOCSIS 3.1 if you’re upgrading a cable modem.

Wi-Fi can add to your woes

Your router could be slowing you down

Choose a router that supports 802.11ax (802.11ac if you want to drop the price point a bit). You’ll need an up-to-date computer to get the most power out of 802.11ax, but 802.11 is generally backwards compatible. That means you should get improved service with a modern router. Over the years, improved router standards have included wider channel bandwidth (up to 160 MHz), denser constellation and additional spatial streams over previous versions that can keep your Wi-Fi router from becoming a bottleneck.

Look for a router that supports 802.11ax (or at least the most up-to-date standard that your computer can handle).

More antennas mean more speed

The number of transmitting and receiving antenna elements directly affects the ability to extract and process multiple spatial streams out of a single transmission.

Check the number of antennas on your router. More = better.

Wi-Fi extenders can be problematic

wifi-waves
As nice as it is to set up your classroom anywhere in the house or garden, Wi-Fi extenders are notorious for slowing down connections because everything you transmit over your network needs to be sent multiple times. If you cannot run enough wired connections for every user in your space, use traditional Wi-Fi extenders with caution.

Many of the challenges of bolting a Wi-Fi extender onto an existing network can be solved by replacing your existing Wi-Fi access point(s) with a mesh system. Place these devices around your home and they will automatically tune themselves to use the appropriate channels to ensure you are getting the best possible coverage. These mesh points generally use one channel to communicate back to the wired base station and an entirely different channel to communicate with your devices. This allows them to minimize potential interference, and automatically adjust coverage to best suit your needs.

Instead of using a traditional Wi-Fi extender, look to a Wi-Fi mesh system that can more intelligently select channels and route traffic.

Gigahertz matter

Many Wi-Fi setups let you choose between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. 2.4 GHz is best for connecting with older devices and when you want the farthest range possible. 5 GHz offers faster speeds and less interference, but it requires your devices to be closer, or have line of sight, to the base station. To get a better connection, especially if you’re using 2.4 GHz, move away from cordless phones, microwaves, baby monitors, Bluetooth devices, and anything that could be broadcasting a signal.

Choose 5 GHz if you’re close to the wireless access point and need speed or are worried about interference. Choose 2.4 GHz for older computers or devices that are farther away from the access point.

Is the service even working?

Like taking a deep breath, make sure to check Downdetector before assuming that your personal setup has failed if a class blinks out. Many online services will be tested in ways never before considered as everyone heads back to school, and outages will likely happen. Possible points of failure include the video conference software and your internet service provider, so use the Downdetector homepage (on your phone if needed) to check what’s down — before you start turning everything off and on again.

Check Downdetector before you assume the error is on your end.

dd-screen-2

This year will be an adjustment as much as an adventure. We hope these tips can help you make the most of your virtual learning experience. For additional help with your remote setup, read this article.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

Consumer
Improve Your Speeds

About the Author

Isla McKetta