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It looks likely that a second wave of COVID-19 is going to extend social distancing and lock-downs. This will make working from home the new normal for many of us. Sixty-two percent of currently employed Americans told Gallup they have worked from home during the crisis. The number of people working from home has doubled since mid-March when the pandemic hit the U.S.

Working from home requires some kind of connectivity from the home to the corporate data. The most reliable way to get that connection is using fixed broadband. You typically get fixed broadband from your local telco monopoly (ATT, Verizon, Comcast, etc). While they promise screaming fast bandwidth of up to 1,000 Mbps (1 Gbps). Their claims of fast connectivity will cost you up at least $75.00 a month. And most of us will never get that kind of speed.

Fastest country

Data from Ookla, the parent company of Speedtest.net, says the fastest country Singapore. The Speedtest Global Index for June 2020 reports that Singapore has an average internet speed of 208.16 Mbps. The overall fixed bandwidth speed in the United States is 143.28 Mbps.  That speed is only good enough to rank 14th globally. For some context, the microstate of Andorra in the Pyrenees mountains gets 161.59 Mbps.

Best connectivity for working from home

In the U.S., New Jersey gets the best fixed broadband connectivity. Ookla says the Garden state gets a median download speed of 99.1 Mbps down (how fast you can transfer data from a server on the Internet to you). New Jersey gets an average of 31.60 Mbps up (how fast you can transfer data to a server on the Internet). The speed comes with a latency of 13 ms (the delay of information communication). 

Michigan ranked 31 in the U.S.

Fixed bandwidth in Michigan is laughable. The Great Lakes state ranked #31 on the Ookla report. Results from speedtest.net say the typical Michigan user has a median download speed of 78.25 Mbps – approximately half of the U.S. average. Michigan only gets an upload speed of 11.36 Mbps with a latency of 20 ms from Comcast Xfinity. Wyoming is the worst state for fixed broadband – they get an average of 43.8 Mbps down and 10.09 Mbps up.

The Ookla report also breaks down the bandwidth for the 100 most populous U.S. cities. Kansas City, Missouri had the fastest median download speed over fixed broadband during Q2 2020 at 132.71 Mbps. Followed by fixed broadband in:

• San Antonio, TX – 123.06 Mbps;
• Austin, TX –  122.20 Mbps;
• Lincoln, NE – 120.19 Mbps; and
• Raleigh, NC – 119.88 Mbps.

Toledo, Ohio was the slowest city. Toledoan’s only get a download speed over fixed broadband of 48.58 Mbps. The next slowest cities according to Speednet.net are:

• Buffalo, NY – 56.24 Mbps;
• St. Paul, MN – 56.99 Mbps;
• Boise, ID – 57.46 Mbps;
• Tucson, AZ – 58.32 Mbps; and
• Detroit, MI – 64.56 Mbps.

Detroit continues its legacy of poor connectivity. Spedtest.net ranked Motown at #95/100. They found that the average Detroiter could only get 64.56 Mbps down and 11.79 Mbps up. The best provider in Motown is Rocket Fiber. The ranking has changed little since I wrote about the National Digital Inclusion Alliance‘s 2018 report that the Detroit metro area ranked #184/185 for the number of households that are actually connected to the Internet

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Could it be that the major telcos are practicing “digital redlining?” The Ookla report says that Rocket Fiber, a local ISP started by Dan Gilbert provides the best service to the D is one indicator. Combine that with the history of insurance redlining in Detroit and Comcast’s 2014 plan to drop the Detroit Market. 

Statistics from Pew estimate that 14% of households in urban areas are digitally disconnected and cannot attend online school and are out of the workforce. That results in 70% of Detroit’s school-age children with no internet access at home.

In Michigan, 809,000 people are left without access to a wired internet connection capable of 25 Mbps download speeds. Another 360,000 people don’t have access to a wired broadband connection at all, and 816,000 Michiganders only have access to one internet provider at their place of residence.

Even those who meet the FCC “High-speed” bandwidth standard of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload can be limited in their ability to attend school online or work from home.

Do the real network math – de-rate any advertised bandwidth by 25% for the factors like over-subscription, bridge clips, and squirrels – leaves an actual bandwidth of 18.75 Mbps down and 2.0 Mbps up. These real-world speeds are not good enough to use the most popular video-conference app Zoom’s high-quality functionality. If two or more users locked down at home, due to COVID, trying to work from home and attend online classes – well. Forget about working from home or going to school online.

Stay safe out there!

Related article

• These Harvard scientists think we’ll have to socially distance until 2022 (The World Economic Forum)

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.