Most of us pay more than $60 a month for home internet, which makes it all the more aggravating when it feels like our internet service providers are selling us short. ISPs have consistently been some of the most loathed companies around due to shady billing practices, hidden fees and the monopolistic structure of the industry, which means that people in some regions are stuck with only one or two service providers to choose from.
Read more: Best internet providers in 2025 | Best mesh Wi-Fi systems of 2025
So what gives? There’s no easy answer. Internet connections are complicated things affected by common headaches like network congestion, the capabilities of the different networks your signal needs to traverse to fetch your data and all sorts of other variables. And a lot of that is beyond your ISP’s control.
To that end, the Federal Communications Commission requires that broadband providers disclose information about their plans in easy-to-read broadband labels. You can learn a lot about each provider by digging through that data if you’re so inclined — but let’s be honest, most of us aren’t itching to parse paragraph after paragraph of fine print.
Lucky for you, that’s where we come in. Here’s a breakdown of what CNET has learned from reading through the disclosures of each of the five largest ISPs in the US by market share: Comcast/Xfinity, Charter/Spectrum, AT&T, Verizon and Cox Communications. We also window-shopped each provider to understand how customer-friendly their websites are.
It’s normal for your speeds to vary
Most internet providers prefix their speed claims with language like “up to,” because there are lots and lots of factors that can affect your connection. And while some are more detailed than others, most of the broadband disclosures for the major ISPs start by explaining what these factors are.
They typically include things like the capabilities of your internet-connected devices, the limitations of whatever networks your signals are traveling along and overall congestion or heavy traffic to specific sites and services. It’s also important to remember that advertised speeds are typically based on wired connections to the modem. Speeds will dip once you start wirelessly beaming an internet connection throughout your house with a Wi-Fi router.
The FCC’s 2024 Measuring Broadband America report found that most internet users were experiencing median download speeds that were as fast as advertised. This was especially true among cable and fiber internet subscribers.
Those caveats aside, there’s actually decent data in support of ISP speed claims — namely from the FCC, which periodically tests the various speeds each ISP offers. The most recent FCC speed tests, published in 2024, found that most ISP top speeds were more or less as fast as advertised. For most providers — particularly cable and fiber — users receive more speed than they’re paying for.
“Most customers using cable and fiber technologies experienced median download speeds that were fairly consistent; i.e., these ISPs provided 100% or greater than the advertised speed during peak usage period to more than 80% of their panelists for more than 80% of the time,” the FCC report reads.
Cheapest plans from the biggest ISPs
