Internet is Faster NOW Than Before the Pandemic
The COVID pandemic has us all using more internet than EVER before. Tons of people are working from home, lots of kids are doing online school, and if you’re like me your iPhone keeps telling you every freaking Sunday that your usage went up 10%. OKAY APPLE I GET I HAVE NO LIFE THANKS FOR THE REMINDER. So with all this internet use, have internet speeds increased or decreased since this all started in March? I have the answer, just keep watching to find out. If you’ve been using the internet during this pandemic, at the beginning you probably noticed your internet speeds were unbearably slow, or at the least you were noticing some buffering. That’s because at the beginning of this pandemic, internet speeds were SLOWER than they are now. I know that because WhistleOut conducted the survey! Yes, we do more than cellphones at WhistleOut.com. You can learn more about us and find your next cell phone or internet plan here (point to right corner). We found that internet speeds are 10Mbps faster than pre-pandemic speeds. Internet speeds increased from 85Mbps to 95Mbps. ALL this despite the fact that our cable internet bandwidth has had more strain on it than ever before with usage up by at least 25% since before the pandemic started, that’s according to the WSJ. To find out how much internet speeds increased we looked at 720-thousand internet speed tests and compared the data sets from Jan-march of 2020 and March to July of 2020. But why did the internet speed up with the increased demand? Well... more people could have bought higher internet speed plans, some providers increased speeds to some customers depending on their location, and some states had major governmental pushes to get fiber and cable to rural areas. Those states saw the BIGGEST increases... Wyoming speeds increased by 52% | 39-60 Alaska speeds increased by 40% | 41-57 Kentucky speeds increased by 37% | 55-76 Kansas speeds increased by 36% | 61-82 Missouri speeds increased by 31% | 64-84 You could say these mid-west states are roping in the WiFi. (cowboy lasso’s wifi...Go crazy derek haha) Now at least two of these states, Wyoming and Alaska, have had huge government pushes in the last few years to get more and better internet to rural areas. The rest of these states also have A LOT of rural areas... their bar for fast internet was already low so it didn’t take too much to get their speeds get faster which is why, in my opinion, they are the states with the highest increases, they had the most room for improvement. Not every state has seen increases in their internet speeds... West Virginia, Hawaii, Delaware, Connecticut, and Washington DC, all saw decreases. All of these states, minus Hawaii, are on the east coast where it’s a bit more crowded than the west coast and midwest so it makes sense that the increased pressure on the bandwidth in these states couldn’t totally support users. Our study found that West Virginia already struggled with internet problems before the pandemic, along with connecticut and Delaware, and adding in the pandemic created a whole new storm to deal with... This is how much their internet speeds decreased: West Virginia speeds decreased by 13% | 59-51 Hawaii speeds decreased by 8% | 69-63 Delaware speeds decreased by 8% | 123-114 Connecticut speeds decreased by 6% | 84-79 DC speeds decreased by 2% | 104-102 In the comments, let me know how your internet speeds are handling the pandemic... are your speeds slower or faster??? Can’t wait to hear from you! I’m sherri Riggs with WO TV.
The COVID pandemic has us all using more internet than EVER before. Tons of people are working from home, lots of kids are doing online school, and if you’re like me your iPhone keeps telling you every freaking Sunday that your usage went up 10%. OKAY APPLE I GET I HAVE NO LIFE THANKS FOR THE REMINDER. So with all this internet use, have internet speeds increased or decreased since this all started in March? I have the answer, just keep watching to find out. If you’ve been using the internet during this pandemic, at the beginning you probably noticed your internet speeds were unbearably slow, or at the least you were noticing some buffering. That’s because at the beginning of this pandemic, internet speeds were SLOWER than they are now. I know that because WhistleOut conducted the survey! Yes, we do more than cellphones at WhistleOut.com. You can learn more about us and find your next cell phone or internet plan here (point to right corner). We found that internet speeds are 10Mbps faster than pre-pandemic speeds. Internet speeds increased from 85Mbps to 95Mbps. ALL this despite the fact that our cable internet bandwidth has had more strain on it than ever before with usage up by at least 25% since before the pandemic started, that’s according to the WSJ. To find out how much internet speeds increased we looked at 720-thousand internet speed tests and compared the data sets from Jan-march of 2020 and March to July of 2020. But why did the internet speed up with the increased demand? Well... more people could have bought higher internet speed plans, some providers increased speeds to some customers depending on their location, and some states had major governmental pushes to get fiber and cable to rural areas. Those states saw the BIGGEST increases... Wyoming speeds increased by 52% | 39-60 Alaska speeds increased by 40% | 41-57 Kentucky speeds increased by 37% | 55-76 Kansas speeds increased by 36% | 61-82 Missouri speeds increased by 31% | 64-84 You could say these mid-west states are roping in the WiFi. (cowboy lasso’s wifi...Go crazy derek haha) Now at least two of these states, Wyoming and Alaska, have had huge government pushes in the last few years to get more and better internet to rural areas. The rest of these states also have A LOT of rural areas... their bar for fast internet was already low so it didn’t take too much to get their speeds get faster which is why, in my opinion, they are the states with the highest increases, they had the most room for improvement. Not every state has seen increases in their internet speeds... West Virginia, Hawaii, Delaware, Connecticut, and Washington DC, all saw decreases. All of these states, minus Hawaii, are on the east coast where it’s a bit more crowded than the west coast and midwest so it makes sense that the increased pressure on the bandwidth in these states couldn’t totally support users. Our study found that West Virginia already struggled with internet problems before the pandemic, along with connecticut and Delaware, and adding in the pandemic created a whole new storm to deal with... This is how much their internet speeds decreased: West Virginia speeds decreased by 13% | 59-51 Hawaii speeds decreased by 8% | 69-63 Delaware speeds decreased by 8% | 123-114 Connecticut speeds decreased by 6% | 84-79 DC speeds decreased by 2% | 104-102 In the comments, let me know how your internet speeds are handling the pandemic... are your speeds slower or faster??? Can’t wait to hear from you! I’m sherri Riggs with WO TV.