Internet Service Providers (ISPs) often make false claims when it comes to their advertised internet speeds, often exaggerating the actual speed experienced by consumers. A study conducted by the Atlas VPN team revealed that internet plans offering higher speed tend to advertise up to threefold more than the actual speed experienced by consumers. Smaller providers are more likely to advertise actual speeds. This is an issue of great customer concern, as it makes choosing the most suitable package considerably more challenging and can affect the customer’s satisfaction with their internet service.
Internet packages offering speeds of up to 125 Mbps have been proven to deliver the speeds advertised by ISPs. Surprisingly, there are noteworthy cases in which some consumers reach even greater speeds than the ones that were initially advertised. With regard to 400 Mbps packages, the median tested speed is 256 Mbps. This difference increases significantly with higher premium plans offering 940 Mpbs and above – typically, the median tested speed of a 1200 Mbps package is 360 Mpbs, meaning the delivered speed is 70% lower than initially advertised.
Factors contributing to slower internet speeds
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may advertise faster speeds, but actual speeds can be affected by various factors.
Network congestion is one of the most common causes of slower internet speeds. When a high volume of people is using the internet at once, the network can become overloaded and slow down. In addition to external factors, hardware limitations on individual user devices can also contribute to reduced speeds.
Additionally, ISPs may impose “fair usage policies” that limit how much bandwidth any given user can consume at any one time, further impacting speed availability.
While it’s natural to feel frustrated when experiencing slower speeds than advertised, it is important to remember that technological advances come with limitations and everyone’s experience of what is advertised will vary accordingly.
How can you increase your internet speed?
Ensuring you have an optimal online experience is essential and improving your internet speed is the first step in reaching that goal.
- To help with this, you should always check the speed profile associated with your internet plan to ensure it meets the criteria for your needs.
- Additionally, restarting your router every so often can help clear any traffic congestion causing slow speeds.
- Moreover, connecting devices directly to the router instead of relying on wi-fi, increases connection stability.
Your internet browser saves files on your computer so that it can load websites faster. But if there are too many files saved, it can make websites load more slowly. You can fix this by deleting the saved files, by clearing your cache.
Scan your computer for viruses to see if that is why your internet is slow. Sometimes a virus can make your internet slow. There are some good antivirus programs you can use for free to see if you have a virus.
Finally, if privacy and security are important, then setting up a VPN will not only keep you out of public networks but also increase internet speed due to local servers within specific regions, increasing performance.
With these strategies combined you should be able to have an improved internet experience.
Read next: How to get the most out of your internet experience
