The politicians in Lansing are not known for doing anything good quickly. But they do have fast internet. New rankings from RootMetrics showed that Lansing, Michigan had one of the fastest download speeds in the U.S. during the second half of 2020. Lansing ranked 6th out of 125 markets in the RootMetrics report.
Fastest download speeds in Michigan
Lansing’s median download speed across the major carriers was 43.7 Mbps. Michigan’s capital city had faster aggregate median download speeds than tech-heavy markets. Lansing ranked better than Chicago (36 Mbps), San Fransico (34.6 Mbps), Dallas (32.3 Mbps), or Los Angeles (31.6 Mbps).
Michigan metro’s rated surprisingly well, overall.
- Detroit ranked 16th nationally at 39.5 Mbps.
- Ann Arbor came in 47th with 34.4 Mbps.
- Flint‘s 31.8 Mbps earned it the 59th spot.
The article says that speeds of 30 Mbps are typically fast enough for users to enjoy smooth gaming and fast file downloads.
Slowest download speeds
The metropolitan areas with the worst download speeds are spread across the U.S. The report says Antelope Valley, CA (20.0 Mbps), Madison, WI (19.3 Mbps), and Fresno, CA (18.8 Mbps) were the worst.
RootMetrics told FierceWireless smaller markets like Lansing have some advantages over the mega-markets like Chicago or Los Angles. Rishikesh Bhandari, RootMetrics RF engineer explained,
Technology rollouts and the optimization of those technologies (such as 5G or higher-order carrier aggregation, among others) can often take longer in bigger cities precisely because of size … there are far more people for the carriers to serve—and over much larger geographic distances … the carriers must ensure smooth technology deployments … and that can take time, especially in bigger cities, with millions of people and thousands of square miles to cover.
How they test the fastest download speeds
RootMetrics conducts its tests with unmodified Android-based smartphones purchased off the shelf at regular mobile phone stores. To determine which metropolitan markets across the U.S. were home to the fastest and slowest speeds, the Bellevue, WA based firm aggregated the overall median download speeds recorded across all network technologies (4G LTE and 5G, where applicable) for AT&T (T), T-Mobile (TMUS), and Verizon (VZ)n in each of the 125 most populated metropolitan markets in the country and ranked them from fastest to slowest.
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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.