What is the best, analytical way to compare one Internet Service to another?
We decided to create a formula that anybody can use to compare their basic Internet service value to another Internet provider. This factor does NOT include other costs like data caps, customer support, latency issues, outages, responsiveness, in house troubleshooting, etc.
We invite you to do your own speed tests and gather your download, upload, monthly cost and latency values and do the comparisons yourself!
There are basically, only THREE parameters that are needed to get a basic comparable factor when comparing the RAW Internet Service level.
DOWNLOAD = Averaged** and measured at your site Download Speed in MB/sec
UPLOAD = Averaged** and measured at your site Upload Speed in MB/sec
MONTHLY COST = Cost per month for that service that include service and any equipment rental
**Averaged speed is the general averaged, measured, randomly tested during the day speed test performed by your choice of speed tests but at your premise on your network. It is not the advertised max speed of the provider.
ISVF Units = MB/Dollar
ISVF = DOWNLOAD/COST (dollars) + UPLOAD/COST
This formula gives equal weight and value to both upload and download speeds.
3 Example Calculations based on Approximate costs/speeds:
AT&T U-VERSE
Download 25 MB
Upload 7 MB
Cost $50/Month
ISVP = 25/50 + 7/50 = .64 MB/Dollar
Comcast
Download 350 MB
Upload 20 MB
Cost $60
ISVP = 350/60 + 15/60 = 6.15 MB/Dollar
LAH Community Fiber with 1 GB service
Download 949 MB
Upload 941 MB
Cost $ 70/month
ISVP = 949/70 + 941/70 = 27.3 MB/Dollar
LAH Community Fiber with 10 GB service
Download = 9635
Upload = 9542
Cost $70/Month
ISVP = 273 MB/Dollar
The 4 value calculation – ISVFL – Internet Service Value Factor 
Latency
A more complex calculation could include the one additional measured speed number of latency. This number typically appears on your speed test and if that number is too large, your overall performance and usefulness of your service may be severely impacted.
So with these 4 values, the latency needs to valued in the calculation after the ISVP calculation is obtained as latency effects both up and downstream performance.
ISVFL = ISVP/Latency (ms) x 1000
- Note – The X1000 was to create whole numbers for easier comparison rather than decimal number and values with MB/sec/Dollar/Sec
This calculation really makes a LAH Fiber solution a even more valued number compared to other systems since our latency is so low.
Example Calculations
Comcast –
ISVFL = 27.3 / 1ms x 1000 – 27,300
AT&T U-Verse
Latency**= 30.41ms
**Across their coverage area, the average latency on AT&T Internet Internet speed tests is 30.41ms. (May 2020)
ISVFL = .64/30ms x 1000 = 21.3
