And how often do you get the same values, ±5%? Speed tests are fun but the results are rarely duplicated. There are so many variables even in your own LAN that they are good for general, long-term service estimations. They are generally not much good for claiming any records!
Then, there are the various 'engines' doing the measuring; some use Java, some use Flash®, some use neither, some you may not be able to determine. Next comes selecting the server to download from and upload to; how are those selected? By you or the software? If it's done by the software, are those servers selected to show the best, fastest speeds? Would that be the tests done by your ISP?
Another variable is the size and load on your particular 'wide-area-network'. Over here, the cable companies setup networks mainly lumping together several houses on a street or block. If all the users in all those houses are surfing at the same time, everyones speeds will be lower. That's one reason cable companies don't guarantee up/download speeds. It depends on the time of day, the data being used (multi-player games, streaming video, email, etc.), and the phase of the Moon. OK, maybe the Moon's phase is not involved, but I don't think you can prove it's not!
Most of the time, we only notice when the speed slows enough to get some spinning 'pizza's' or some stuttering videos. Other than that, we just adapt to what we get, even if it is seriously over-priced! I just deleted some screen shots of speed tests from the cable company and a company that supplies the software to them. Even though the tests were done within 15 minutes of each other, the numbers were much different. Can't even remember which was faster.
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This Wikipedia page> has a nice chart ("
Bit rate (Mbit/s)") showing the 'stated' speeds of the different WiFi methods usually available in your business/house; look near the bottom (of the unsorted list) to see the 802.11... speeds. Note that, until 802.11ac, Gigabit Ethernet, which has been around for decades, was always faster than WiFi!
An aside:
FIOS is great, if/when it becomes available. A good friend was using DSL and complained for weeks that he was getting only ~1.5Mps when he had been paying for 3Mps. The last technician asked why he was paying for 3Mps since he was almost 11 miles from the switch?! The 'normally accepted' distance is 10 miles and then only 1.5Mps is guarantees! The friendly phone company had called a few weeks earlier and asked my friend if he knew that FIOS was available in his "neighborhood"? Well, no. How much would that cost, anyway? Of course, the cost would be more but my friend decided to go for it! That last technician I mentioned also advised my friend that, yes, FIOS was in the "neighborhood" but it certainly wasn't planed any streets even close to my friends house! Surely a simple, sales-promotion, misunderstanding...
My friend canceled the phone company
completely and is now surfing with the cable company. "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you!"
Unfortunately, the cable company is also a monopoly, so enjoy the speed while you can. That's my advice to him, anyway.
Maybe you could move to London? I hear it's no longer the most expensive city in the world to live in!
