Sometimes, David beats Goliath.
At least when it comes to internet speed, The 2017 U.S. Market Report by Ookla puts locally-owned Rocket Fiber at the top of the Detroit market for fixed line (internet with a wired connection to a house or business) service ahead of much larger players.
According to the report, Rocket Fiber’s download speeds average at 60.09 Mbps for downloads and uploads at 28.23 Mbps.
A new metric for the Ookla report is “speed score,” which aims to quantify the overall experience using the internet Service Provider. It incorporates low-end, median and top-end performance for both download and upload speed.
Nationally, Rocket Fiber came second only to Google Fiber on a city-by-city basis.
Rocket Fiber, founded in 2014, focuses on customer service and flat-rate pricing at $70 a month. However, their service area is extremely limited as of this writing and focused on the greater downtown Detroit area. But they have plans to expand.
Comcast’s XFINITY service is dominant as far as market share in the area because of their wide service area and in many parts of town it’s the only player available when you want a certain internet speed.