American Internet speeds skyrocketed one year after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed the agency’s 2015 net neutrality regulations, according to a study released this week.
Internet speed-test company Ookla released a study this week on American Internet speeds which found that broadband download speeds have increased by 35.8 percent, while upload speeds have increased by 22 percent compared to last year.
New Jersey had the highest average download speed of 121 megabits per second, and Rhode Island had the upload speed of 63 megabits per second. Maine had the slowest average upload and download speeds. California, the home of Silicon Valley, placed at 17th in download speed and 24th in upload speed.
Xfinity, owned by Comcast, ranked as the fastest Internet service provider (ISP), followed closely by Verizon and Cox.
Ookla concluded in their report thatC “As ISPs continue to build out their fiber networks and gigabit-level speeds expand we only expect to see internet speeds increase across the U.S.”
Ookla’s report arises around the one-year anniversary of the FCC’s repeal of the Obama-era net neutrality regulations, which establishment media sources such as CNN suggested would serve as the “end of the Internet as we know it.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai cited the Ookla report on Wednesday, tweeting, “Broadband download speeds in the U.S. rose 35.8 percent and upload speeds are up 22 percent from last year, according to internet @speedtest company #Ookla in its latest U.S. broadband report.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), tweeted on Wednesday, that CNN “falsely reported” that the Internet would end as a result of FCC Chairman Pai’s repeal of the net neutrality rules.
Cassidy tweeted, “One year ago this week, after the Trump administration and @AjitPaiFCC reversed anti-innovation internet regulations instituted by the previous administration in 2015, CNN falsely reported ‘the end of the internet as we know it.’”
“The internet’s still working just fine,” Cassidy added.
The FCC repealed the agency’s 2015 net neutrality rule in December 2017, which reclassified the Internet as an “information service” compared to the net neutrality rules, which regulated the Internet as a public utility. The order also requires Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast or Verizon to release transparency reports detailing their practices towards consumers and businesses.
Net Neutrality advocates contend that the country needs the regulations to prevent ISPs from unfairly censoring content, while critics suggest that the rules stifle the freedom of the Internet and that social media giants such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter serve as a far greater threat to free speech compared to Comcast or Cox.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Monday that Google’s leftist political bias should not “creep into its search products,” given its dominant status on the Internet.
McCarthy said on Monday, “We need to know that Google is on the side of the free world and that it will provide its services free of anti-competitive behavior, political bias, and censorship.”
