It’s Not Your Router. Only One State Has Slower Internet than Montana

Okay, it might be your router.

That's what techies always tell us to check first when we're complaining about slow internet speed in Montana. If you're still rocking an old cable box from when Spectrum was still named Charter, it's probably due for an upgrade. My speed and reliability at our home in Laurel were getting awful a year or two ago and they sent a tech out with a new router. Problem solved.

It could be your wifi box too.

With so many smart appliances, security systems, and game systems using wifi (in addition to our phones and laptops) the newer Wifi antenna boxes have become better too. They're relatively inexpensive and might help with better connections around your house.

The actual reason your internet seems so slow in Montana.

Because it is slow. According to a report from NetworkBuildz, a telecommunications and mobile tech company, the Treasure State has the 2nd slowest internet speed in the nation. Alaska is the only state worse. How slow? According to the data, Montanans have a snail-paced download speed of just 93.79 megabytes per second on average. Our average upload speed is 11.36 megabytes per second. The authors wrote,

...rural and remote areas in states like Alaska and Montana often face challenges with limited internet access and slower speeds compared to more urbanized regions. 

To put this in perspective, the state with the best internet score is Connecticut, where average download speeds are around 237.66 megabytes per second. Over twice as fast as Montana. Interestingly, North Dakota ranked high on the list of states with great internet, at 7th. The authors of the report used internet data compiled from the Federal Communications Commission, Speedtest, and BroadbandNow. 

Test your internet speed here at Speedtest and drop a Comment on our Facebook page with your results. Contributor Josh Rath has a speedy, 700+ meg download speed at his place in Billings. My house in Laurel has a 94-megabyte download speed with a puny 10.5 upload. We're both on Spectrum, so that's interesting.