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St. Paul gets top ranking for speedy Internet
Minneapolis ranks 7th among U.S. cities in residential download speeds. But some local experts question the rankings' validity.
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Ookla, a well-known Seattle company that measures the speed of Internet connections, says St. Paul has recently become No. 1 in the nation in residential Internet download speeds. Minneapolis is no slouch either, coming in seventh in the current Net Index report.
But some local experts say Ookla's numbers are questionable. They point out that 18 months ago the state-sponsored Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force found that average residential broadband speeds in Ramsey and Hennepin counties averaged 6 million to 10 million bits per second, also called megabits.
But Ookla's average speeds -- 14.5 megabits in St. Paul and 12.3 in Minneapolis -- were significantly higher. Its statewide average was 12.5 megabits, significantly higher than the national average of 10.5.
The local experts suspect that Ookla's survey of residential Internet speeds is flawed because it accidentally included some high-capacity corporate Internet connections, whose speeds far exceed anything available to consumers.
In response, Ookla, which makes a living providing speed test information to corporations, questioned the low speeds found by the state task force. Those numbers came from another Internet firm, Connected Nation of Washington, D.C.
"It's very possible that the speeds in our report were low, but I don't think they were that low," said Rick King, chairman of the Minnesota task force and chief technology officer of Thomson Reuters in Eagan. "I don't think a lot of people are getting those (Ookla) speeds. And I don't see how the high numbers are possible without maybe mixing in the speeds from some business customers."
Brent Christensen, a task force member and CEO of the St. Paul-based Minnesota Telecom Alliance, a trade association representing 88 independent telephone companies, agrees.
"If you added in business customers, it would be no problem to get to 14 megabits of average Internet speed in St. Paul," Christensen said.
Connected Nation's Brent Legg said Ookla's numbers probably are correct for Minneapolis and St. Paul, but, given how broadband starved outstate communities have been, its Minnesota-wide number may be flawed because of a sampling error that gave too much weight to Twin Cities Internet users.
"When I talked to Comcast earlier this year, they told me their 20 megabit Internet service was their most popular," said Legg, director of stakeholder relations and development. "That may account for the Minneapolis and St. Paul speed increases, although their state speed number seems a little bit odd to me."
Comcast agreed that its consumer cable modem speeds of 12 to 50 megabits could account for the high St. Paul average speed. Qwest did not return a phone call about the Ookla study.
The apparent improvement in statewide Internet speeds comes at a time when there has been a scramble among competing groups of communities, schools and Internet providers to apply for federal stimulus money to improve broadband speeds in rural Minnesota. The reason: While there are pockets of high-speed service around Minnesota, many areas have speeds of around 1 megabit, or no high-speed Internet service at all.
"While some of our member companies are offering 20 to 30 megabit Internet connections in different locations around the state, I don't know that they would be enough to give the state that high a speed average," Christensen said.
Ookla does its surveys of broadband speed in an unusual way. Rather than contact Internet users, it relies on the results from two free websites -- Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net -- that are available to consumers who want to measure their actual Internet speeds and the quality of their connections. The websites measure how much time it takes consumers to download or upload a certain amount of data, then determines what cities they live in by the Internet addresses of their computers, called the Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses.
Ookla measured at least 75,000 users from every metro area in its city rankings between Feb. 28 and Aug. 29, said spokeswoman Hanna Lane. To make sure the numbers truly reflected consumer Internet speeds, Ookla eliminated all IP addresses that belonged to businesses, she said.
Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553
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posted by benitofinito on Sep 3, 10 at 11:53 pm |Bloated from decades of profit
Local Telecom shareholders are bloated from decades of profiting off of local and long distance fees... it's about time they invested in their communities and customers with technology that has been around for at least one decade.
posted by bradtheissenla on Sep 4, 10 at 1:10 am |Minneapolis...
I live in Brooklyn Park and RARELY even get the 12MPS from Concast that we pay for! Spelling intended. How do you other Comcast customers do?
posted by joverheul on Sep 4, 10 at 6:07 am |Speed is important
As there is money to made after the new faster internet takes over. The new internet much like cable TV a zillion channels run by the media establishment but nothing is on to watch. But lots of Main stream opinion but little real grassroot opinions as they were put in a internet rest stop for good. Speed is real important to get the pay per view content to you.
posted by lothlorn on Sep 4, 10 at 7:13 am |Stay Out Of It!
The government needs to stay out of the internet business! If people want faster internet speeds, they'll pay for it, and they'll get it. It's that easy.
posted by SMBowner3 on Sep 4, 10 at 7:25 am |
Ya coulda fooled me
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