How to Compare Internet at Two Addresses

When two properties are otherwise close, connectivity is one of the few differences you can quantify before you commit. SignalScout has a compare mode for exactly this: two US addresses, side by side, with the measured numbers rather than the marketing ones.

What gets compared

Each address is geocoded through the US Census Geocoder, matched to its census block via the FCC Area API, and then looked up in the Ookla Open Data tile set — 1.63 million fixed-broadband tiles and 424,000 mobile tiles from the 2026 Q1 release. For each side you get:

• Median measured download, upload and latency for the fixed-broadband tile
• The number of tests behind those medians
• The same set for mobile, separately
• A Connectivity Score from 0 to 100, which is a percentile rank against national measured speeds
• Surrounding tiles, so you can see whether an address sits on a good street or a good island

Weight the metrics to your actual life

A comparison is only useful if you know which column you care about. Most people default to download, which is usually the least discriminating number.

Which differences are real

Tile medians are estimates built from a finite number of tests, so small gaps mean nothing. Three rules of thumb:

• Check test counts first. If address A has 480 tests and address B has 11, you are not comparing like with like. The sparse side could move a long way with a handful of new results.
• Ignore differences under roughly 20% on download when both tiles are already fast. 380 Mbps versus 440 Mbps tells you nothing useful about which house is better connected.
• Take upload gaps seriously. Download varies with the plans people bought. Upload varies with the technology in the ground. A 10x upload gap almost always means one address has fiber and the other does not, which is the most durable difference between two properties.

Read the surrounding tiles, not just the centre

An address whose own tile is fast but sits in a slow neighbourhood is a different proposition from one embedded in a uniformly fast area. The first often means one enthusiastic household with a premium plan is lifting a thin sample. The second means the infrastructure is genuinely there and your provider choices will be real.

The reverse is equally useful: a middling tile surrounded by fast ones frequently means a recent build has reached the area with uneven take-up, which is a good sign for future options.

What the comparison cannot settle

Be clear about the boundaries before you make a decision on this alone.

• No provider names. SignalScout does not list which ISPs serve an address. The FCC's bulk availability dataset needs a registered account and its per-address API blocks automated requests, so provider lists are planned rather than present. Get names from the FCC National Broadband Map and each provider's own checker.
• No prices or plan tiers. An address with a slower median might have a cheaper gigabit option nobody on the street has bought.
• Data vintage. 2026 Q1. A build completed since then will not show.
• Medians reflect purchases, not possibilities. This is the single most important caveat, and it applies to both sides equally — which is why comparisons are more reliable than absolute readings.

A workable process

1. Run both addresses in compare mode and note download, upload, latency, test count and score for fixed and mobile.
2. Discard any metric where the gap is small or the sample is thin.
3. Rank the remaining gaps by what your household actually does.
4. Look up providers for both addresses on the FCC map, and read it with the scepticism the filed-versus-measured guide recommends.
5. Share the comparison link with whoever you are deciding with — results are shareable, so the person who is not in the room can see the same numbers.
6. Before signing anything, run through the pre-move checklist for the address you pick.

The goal is not to find the address with the biggest number. It is to avoid the one where the number that matters to you is quietly ten times worse.

Common questions