According to the first comprehensive, independent measurements of national Internet backbones ever published, CompuServe is the best-performing national Internet backbone--by far. IBM Global Net and PSINet are among the worst, according to the study.
The study, which observed download measurements taken from 27 cities every fifteen minutes over a 30-day period from April 20, 1997 to May 20, 1997, represents 1.7 million measurements of 29 of the leading national Internet backbones. It is the most massive comparative set of data on Internet performance ever compiled. The results? All Internet access is *not* created equal. CompuServe, in fact, is almost twice as fast as its nearest competitor.
A summary of the results is available at the Keynote web site
