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U.S. airports achieved median Wi-Fi download speed between 50 and 100 Mbps.

Photo of the San Francisco International Airport

June 18, 2024 – San Francisco International Airport topped the list for the best internet connectivity among the world’s busiest airports in the first quarter of 2024, according to Ookla’s data on download speed, upload speed, and latency.

Ookla, an internet performance metrics and data analytics company, highlighted the flexibility and dependability of the busiest 50 airport’s Wi-Fi in terms of speed, latency and providing comprehensive connectivity access insights for travelers.

The company said that by using multiple service set identifiers, the identifier for Wi-Fi networks, across different terminals and leveraging the 2.4 GHz frequency for broader coverage and the 5 GHz frequency for higher speeds, all global airports can provide high-speed internet through free Wi-Fi.

“We’re dedicated to making sure the networks you depend on are always at their best,” Ookla wrote in a statement, elaborating that using multiple SSIDs with sufficient data in the map can lead to optimal results at dramatically different speeds. “We know firsthand just how challenging it can be to optimize Wi-Fi at airports, especially when you have up to 900 people waiting at each boarding gate during the busiest travel times.” 

According to Speedtest Intelligence, which provides worldwide insights into fixed broadband and mobile performance statistics based on billions of consumer-initiated tests, seven U.S. airports achieved median Wi-Fi download speeds between 50-100 megabits per second (Mbps) during the first quarter of 2024. These airports are:

• San Francisco International Airport (173.55 Mbps), 
• Newark Liberty International Airport (166.51 Mbps), 
• John F. Kennedy International Airport (151.59 Mbps), 
• Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (151.28 Mbps), 
• Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (137.31 Mbps), 
• Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (119.92 Mbps), 
• and Harry Reid International Airport (107.84 Mbps).

Of those airports, six were found to have the fastest Wi-Fi upload speeds in the U.S. The fastest mobile download speeds were recorded at Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar at 442.49 Mbps, Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in China at 264.71 Mbps, and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport at 295.94 Mbps.

This year’s findings mark a shift from the previous year’s report in 2023, where Fort Lauderdale’s Hollywood International Airport Terminal 3 and San Francisco International Airport showed median download speeds of 157.60 and 156.66 Mbps and ranked as the best performance over free Wi-Fi. 

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