Fast Lane to Connectivity: Eastern Iowa Leads Nation in Internet Speed

There is nothing more frustrating than when you see the spinning wheel of death when you're streaming your favorite show, right?

Slow internet is a very real and also very first world problem for people.

There are instances (outside of watching the latest miniseries on Hulu) where internet speed can actually make or break your livelihood.

Many students during COVID-19 were relying heavily on online schooling during this time. If the family did not have a good internet provider/services then the student unfortunately fell behind.

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National Average Internet Speed

The average download speed in most metropolitan areas in the United States is 105.8 Mbps. This went up 38.3% since 2022 when the median was 76.5 Mbps, according to reports.

This study also determined that the difference between the fastest and slowest metro areas is 167.7 Mbps.

Dang...that's going to be a long buffering time when you are watching Netflix.

Iowa Metro Area Ranks in the Top Five for Internet Speed

A study came out from High Speed Internet that determined the metropolitan areas with the fastest internet speeds in the entire nation. One of the top regions is right in Eastern Iowa.

When looking at the data, you'll notice that it's not the big cities like Chicago or Los Angeles that have the faster internet. It's those medium to smaller market areas that seem to thrive.

If you take a look at the top five metro areas on this list, you'll notice that the biggest city to sit high on this ranking is Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida.

According to the United States Census Bureau, this region has a population of about 3.2 million people.

To put this in perspective, New York City and the surrounding metro area is ninety-one on this list!

What Metro Area in Iowa Comes Out on Top?

According to this report, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro has the fifth fastest internet speed in the entire country!

Gotta show some love for the Cedar Valley!

The median download speed in this area for 2023 is 179.8 Mbps. This speed has improved dramatically over the course of a year, with speeds up 106.3%.

Waterloo-Cedar Falls is also the ninth most improved in the country for internet speeds.

Cedar Falls & Waterloo Internet

Each of these cities will have its own internet provider in the next few years.

Cedar Falls is notorious for having fantastic internet services due to Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU).

The city of Waterloo made a move towards something similar to CFU this past year.

Waterloo Fiber, is a locally owned and operated municipal fiber internet utility that launched in the fall.

Currently, team is making progress to make this high-speed internet available to all Waterloo residents in the near future.

We will keep you updated on this as construction continues.

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