Mbps, actual vs. theoretical

[Scribe]

I use Sonic where I live now (San Francisco Bay north) but I am moving to Los Angeles, and trying to decide on an ISP. I just ran a speed test here, using Sonic's site, and came up with less than 2 Mbps downloading and less than 1 Mbps uploading. Can I expect the same minimal performance in Los Angeles, with a plan that promises "up to" 50 Mbps?

[miken]

The service available at that location in Los Angeles is probably our Fusion FTTN product. Instead of using traditional copper, most of the distance from the central office to your home is carried over fiber optics. These lines don't see as much variation in speed as their copper counterpart. Most customers I have spoken with that have the service get between 45-48Mbp/s on speedtests. One thing to keep in mind is that running a speedtest over wireless or while downloads are happening in the background can skew results a bit.

[Scribe]

Thank you, Mike. Does my distance from the Central office in Los Angeles make a significant difference? My experience with Sonic here in NoCal has been excellent, by the way, and after a chronically bad experience with AT&T in San Francisco, I am a little bummed out that Sonic in Los Angeles apparently uses AT&T infrastructure.

[thomas_l]

For FTTN service, distance from the Central Office is basically a null factor as that portion is carried over fiber - this is why most customers get at or very close to the estimated speeds for FTTN.

If the service is copper-based, such as VDSL2 (which can provide similar speeds at short loop lengths), then distance from the Central Office will be a more significant factor in end sync rate.

[Guest]

Sorry, Miken. Please pardon my typo.