Comcast’s Xfinity Internet provides the highest internet speeds in the most states — 20 — according to research by web-services company Hostinger, while Google Fiber is the speediest service in the relatively few states where it is available.

That ranking is based on data from speedtest.net, a Ziff Davis-owned company that compares internet provider speeds.

Cox Communications ranked second with the highest speeds in seven states, with Google Fiber third with top speeds in five states. AT&T was fourth with the top median speed in four states.

Google Fiber has the fastest median average speed by far at 337 Megabits per second, compared to Cox’s median average of 288 Mbps; Xfinity’s 275 Mbps; and AT&T's 243 Mbps.

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband service sported an underwhelming median speed average of 75 Mbps, below the FCC's proposed new 100 Mbps definition for baseline high-speed internet.

“[N]o provider monopolizes the speediest connections,” Eiviltas Paraščiakas, head of communications for Hostinger, said. “It is clear that while some areas are spoiled for choice, there are places in the country whose only option is slow Wi-Fi.”

Editor's note: Ookla, which runs speedtest.net, says the ranking is not based on its data and has reached out to Hostinger for clarification, as has NextTV.

Comcast will expand its 1.2-terabyte data usage cap to its entire footprint, adding Xfinity high-speed internet customers in 14 additional states and territories to the scheme starting in January. 

Customers will be charged $10 for every 50 gigabytes of data in excess of the 1.2 TB cap, plus tax, every month, with overage charges capped at $100. Comcast won’t charge customers in newly affected regions if they exceed their limits in January and February. And they’ll get one “credit” each year, which subscribers can use to cover themselves the first time they’re charged for exceeding the cap. 

So customers effectively have until April to get used to the usage limits. 

Xfinity Internet subscribers will also be advised when they’re approaching their usage limit. Customers can opt out of the cap and essentially render their service unlimited for an additional $30 a month. Gigabit Pro and business tier customers are exempt. 

For Xfinity broadband customers in 27 U.S. states, these rules are not new. But they will be to subscribers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio, D.C, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. 

Comcast insists 95% of its customers don’t come close to using 1.2 TB in an average month. Average monthly usage comes in at around 308 GB, Comcast said. 

But OpenVault, which provides data to cable operators about their networks, just released a report suggesting that the number of so-called “power users” is rising fast. Within two to three years, the company said, 5% to 10% of internet users will consume 2 TB or more data each month.

Comcast will expand its 1.2-terabyte data usage cap to its entire footprint, adding Xfinity high-speed internet customers in 14 additional states and territories to the scheme starting in January. 

Customers will be charged $10 for every 50 gigabytes of data they exceed the 1.2 TB cap, plus tax, every month, with overage charges limited to $100. Comcast won’t charge customers in newly affected regions if they exceed their limits in January and February. And customers will receive one “credit” each year, which they can use to cover themselves the first time they’re charged for exceeding the cap. 

So customers effectively have until April to get used to the usage limits. 

Customers will also be advised when they’re approaching their usage limit. Customers can opt out of the cap and essentially render their service unlimited for an additional $30 a month. Gigabit Pro and business tier customers are exempt.

For Xfinity internet customers in 27 other U.S. states, these rules are not new. But they will be to subscribers in Comcast's northeast division, which inlcudes New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachussettes, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, as well as Washington, D.C. 

Comcast competes with Verizon's uncapped wireline broadband operations in these northeast territories. 

Even with customers streaming and zooming more these days, Comcast insists that 95% of its customers don’t come close to using 1.2 TB in an average month. Average monthly usage comes in at around 308 GB, Comcast said. 

But OpenVault, which provides data to cable operators about their networks, just released a report suggesting that the number of so-called “power users” is rising fast. The company said that within 2-3 years, 5%-10% of internet users will consume 2 TB or more data each month. 

After turning the data-usage meter off for the last three months of the pandemic quarantine period, Comcast has restored its limit on residential broadband usage for most customers.

But the No. 1 U.S. cable operator will now allow users to gobble through 1.2 terabytes of data before it imposes additional charges, as opposed to the pre-pandemic limit of 1 TB. The limit was imposed July 1.

Comcast said it will now allow users to exceed the limit during one month without charges — it was previously offering two months’ worth of mulligans. However, the MSO reset the clock for all customers, meaning if you previously used one or more courtesy overages during 2020, that won’t count.

Comcast bills customers $10 for every 50 Gigabytes of data used once they exceed the 1.2 TB limit.

Comcast insists 1.2 TB is enough for pretty much anybody. With that allotment, the cable company said, customers can stream 480 hours to 560 hours of HD video a month, or more than 150 hours of 4K video.

These data-usage policies apply to most of Comcast’s more than 29.1 million U.S. residential wireline broadband subscribers, save for some areas in the Northeast where Comcast competes directly with Verizon Fios.

Notably, Charter Communications, the second-largest U.S. wireline broadband service provider with just over 27.2 million customers, does not currently impose usage limits. But it just petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to relax deal conditions related to its purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks so that it may, among other things, set data caps.

AT&T, the No. 3 U.S. fixed broadband supplier with roughly 15.3 million customers, has extended the moratorium on its 1-TB usage cap until Sept. 30.

AT&T has received criticism for “zero-rating” its HBO Max and AT&T TV video services, which means the two platforms don’t count against its data caps. Suspending usage limits forestalls dealing with that issue.