If you just moved houses or are planning to upgrade to the fastest internet available in your area, it’s not as easy as getting recommendations from your neighbors. For you, this is the detailed blog article regarding how to choose an Internet Service Provider.
It’s a little bit more complicated than that. But if you need more improvement in speed, this guide will show you how to check your current internet speed, how to measure the amount of internet you need, discover the internet service providers (ISPs), and how they rank in Netflix.
Two ways to determine Internet Speed
Before you sign on to the nearest ISP, you should first check.
1. Test your current internet plan via Ookla Speedtest.net:
For those who are planning to upgrade internet plans, you first need to test your current plan. Getting a new plan only to get the same speed as your former plan is one of the most devastating things you can experience, so be sure to record your test regularly a week prior to your scheduled installation.
Ookla Speedtest is a favorite tool around the world because it’s free and is a good gauge to use when compared with other internet plans.
2. Research internet plans by country:
You can find a list of internet speeds from Netflix or Ookla.
- Netflix – If your main reason for getting a new internet plan is to be able to stream movies and TV shows more effortlessly, then check out The Netflix ISP Speed Index (a database of ISP providers ranked by average Netflix streaming speed). There has been a huge rise in OTT platform in recent years.
In the United States alone, 30% of internet download traffic goes to Netflix. As such, the company is a major player in the world of internet bandwidths and can be a reliable gauge if you’re choosing providers near you.
- Ookla – Whenever you use the Speetest.net tool by Ookla, the company saves your record and collects this information, organizes it by country, and includes it into the Ookla’s Net Index. This index lists down all countries that use the tool.
If you registered with Ookla and have an account there, check the “go to my location” link where you’ll find specific cities, regions, and countries… as well as all ISPs that are available in your area. This database shouldn’t be considered gospel, but you can gauge the results since you can compare internet speeds by upload speed, connection quality, and so on.
Other considerations when choosing an internet plan and ISP
In an ideal world, we could just rely on the advertising promises of an ISP before you signed on the dotted line and subscribed with them. But this is the easiest way to get disappointed, so picking out the fastest internet in your area should be based on research and analytics.
You now have two important data to arm you with your search:
- Your current internet speed (if you already have one and are planning to upgrade)
- The recommended ISP providers by Netflix and Ookla
You should now determine how much internet speed your work, household, or business actually needs.
This is important because if you ask for your neighbor’s recommendation and they say their ISP now is “the bomb” and you believed them, you’d be sorely disappointed. That neighbor may just be using the internet for basic stuff like social media or YouTube. If your teenagers do online gaming and you upload and download big files every day, your needs won’t be the same as your neighbor’s, so his recommendation is moot.
Now when you list down your day-to-day internet activities, such as:
- The number of Zoom meetings you do
- The size of files you upload or download every day
- The number of computers and devices connected to a single internet plan
- Special software/programs that eat up bandwidth (customer service VOIP, CAD, etc.)
Once you get a clearer picture of the bandwidth or internet demands of your household or business, you’ll be able to compare plans with an open mind. Because the priority isn’t just about picking the cheapest plan, you’ll need tools like Solar Winds for business or Verizon’s household data usage calculator to help you compute.
Make a Shortlist of ISPs and Internet Plans
You have a guide from Netflix and Ookla.
You’ve calculated your bandwidth usage.
You have a list of available ISPs in your area.
Now you can compare internet plans based on the pricing, offer, data cap, overage fees, equipment fees, installation time (if you need the connection installed quickly), and other promotions.
You should also check out customer service reviews and the social media accounts of your chosen ISP, since how they communicate with clients and would-be customers on Facebook, Twitter and other online spaces would reflect on how they’d communicate with you should you have problems in the future.
By the end of this comparison, you’d have filtered the list of how to choose an Internet Service Provider and various internet plans. Based on it, one could accommodate his/her preferred bandwidth needs in real-world usage.