Netflix Ranks ISPs On Video-Streaming Efficiency, Google Fiber Comes Out On Top

It's no surprise that Netflix takes up a big chunk of internet bandwidth, so the company has decided to rank how fast various internet service providers can stream movies to Netflix customers. They've announced that they'll be releasing a new list every month starting with November 2012 (last month).

For their first rankings, it comes at no surprise that Google Fiber comes out on top. The service is about as fast as it gets, and it's also dirt cheap. In second place, however, is Verizon's own fiber optic offering, FiOS, and Comcast ranked third. Charter and Cablevision round out the top five.

As expected, mobile networks are bunched up near the bottom of the list. While 4G LTE is continually growing, average speeds on mobile networks still aren't quite as fast as what you get with a connection at home. However, both Verizon and AT&T DSL services are at the bottom of the list as well showing poor performance, behind TimeWarner Cable, Cox, and CenturyLink.

Netflix points out that the average Mbps speeds listed are well below the peak performance of the respective ISP, which is due to a variety of factors like WiFi, different devices and routers, and a variety of encodes. However, this should still give you a good idea on how well each ISP handles video streaming.