How much should distance affect internet speed test?

I live in Phoenix. My ISP is Century Link. I am paying for a 40 meg connection. If I run a speed test to the local Tempe server, I get respectable speeds, usually low 30s. But if I run speed tests to other cities I see a dramatic drop in speed. I understand that the distance should have some effect on it, but I don't think it should be this drastic. For example, to San Francisco I get mid 20s, and to Seattle I am hovering around 15-17. Again, some speed loss it to be expected, but is getting less than half of what I am 'paying for' typical?

And yes I have contacted Century Link about this, but they have quite the "outside of Arizona not our problem deal with it" policy on the issue.

Taylor Huston

Posted 2015-11-28T01:26:52.203

Reputation: 173

tell them to care or you will contact the Arizona Corporation Commission http://www.azcc.gov/divisions/utilities/ You should certainly be getting a solid 40 to local servers and not much less than that to San Fransisco. Low 30's is not respectable if your paying for 40.

– Tyson – 2015-11-28T01:33:24.593

"The Commission DOES NOT regulate interstate long distance rates, cell phones, fax machines, voicemail services or internet services. Also the Commission DOES NOT regulate cable or satellite TV. Cable television systems are typically regulated at the municipal level. Contact your local municipal entity for assistance with cable questions." – Taylor Huston – 2015-11-28T01:56:07.983

Answers

You're getting exactly what you're paying for I'm afraid. When you sign up for a residential package like that your contract gives you X speed and X usage on the ISPs network. That is if your package is 40Mb you get 40Mb to the edge of the ISPs network. If you use their own test site within the network you should see the promised speed - overheads.

When you connect to a test server in Seattle your packets could be crossing 6 other networks, nothing is now guaranteed. Generally if you've a good ISP they'll pay to peer with other fast networks, but a poor ISP(like many in the US) they'll use cheap/inadequate peering and you'll hit traffic jams connecting to significantly remote networks.

Linef4ult

Posted 2015-11-28T01:26:52.203

Reputation: 3 705

This is often not the case. Many ISPs let you pay for 'up to' x bandwidth. So, if you get a 40 Mbps plan, you get 'up to' 40 Mbps; you aren't even guaranteed 40. Nevertheless, this doesn't really affect the main point of your answer, which is a pretty good explanation. – ChrisInEdmonton – 2015-11-28T14:02:10.640

I chose to omit that for clarity. Contended networks will see the "up to" play a big part, as do xDSL where location may reduce sync rates. In modern fixed line networks access level bandwidth tends to be pretty consistent though. – Linef4ult – 2015-11-28T15:16:36.883

Yeah I am used to the 'up to' part, which is why I am okay with mid 30's to the local server, but I didn't expect that to be cut by 50% when I ping somewhere like Seattle. Some speed loss, sure, but not 50%. – Taylor Huston – 2015-11-28T22:02:09.970

It could be that your ISP sucks, or it could be that your network stack is not tuned to allow performance at low speeds (for example you may have too small a window size).

If you can get your bandwidth by downloading 4 or so files simultaneously, you are probably getting roughly what you are paying for (simultaneous downloads gets around limitations associated with latency) - if not, your ISP is inadequately connected.

davidgo

Posted 2015-11-28T01:26:52.203

Reputation: 49 152