Comcast maintained the top spot in Netflix’s monthly ISP Speed Index for January 2017 in the U.S., delivering an average Netflix speed of 3.83 Mbps.
That led all major U.S. major ISPs measured by Netflix, as well as a bigger group that includes smaller ISPs.
Among majors, Comcast, which recently integrated Netflix on X1 set-tops and has a paid interconnection deal with the OTT provider, was followed by Optimum (the former Cablevision Systems properties now owned by Altice USA), with an average of 3.79 Mbps, Bright House Networks (now part of Charter Communications), at 3.77 Mbps, Verizon Fios (3.72 Mbps), and Cox Communications (3.71 Mbps).
Of that group, Optimum and Bright House both rose one slot, while Fios dropped two spots.
The bottom five among large U.S. ISPs were: Frontier Communications (3 Mbps), CenturyLink (2.92 Mbps), AT&T-DSL (2.85 Mbps), Windstream (2.7 Mbps), and Verizon-DSL (2.58 Mbps).
With smaller ISPs included, Comcast had a small lead on Grande Communications and WideOpenWest (3.80 Mbps) and Midco (3.79 Mbps). Google Fiber, which used to lead the pack regularly, was 12th on that list, delivering an average of 3.69 Mbps.
The Netflix Speed Index bases scores on average Netflix streaming speeds during prime time hours. The small difference among ISPs, particularly at the top of the list, likely doesn’t impact quality as much as it gives bragging rights to service providers.
Among individual countries, ISPs measured by Netflix in Switzerland led with an average of 4.23 Mbps, followed by Belgium (4.04 Mbps), the Netherlands (4.03 Mbps), Luxembourg (3.89 Mbps) and Denmark and Sweden (3.85 Mbps). U.S. ISPs averaged 3.53 Mbps in January 2017.
