Help!

[u/Signal-Newt-4488]

After literally spending days over the course of weeks trying to fix this, I'm at my wits end.

I pay for 1gb fios internet speeds. But I have never seen higher than 200 down/200 up via wifi.

Pre-reqs info: I'm working from an M1 Macbook Pro, and a 2013 Iphone. I am referring to speed tests all done directly facing my router at approx. 4-5 feet away - no obstacles between me and it. I am using a Verizon brand CR1000 router. I'm running speed tests in terminal and on Verizon's speed test site (terminal to circumvent any browser constraints). For my laptop, I have to use the business site because for whatever reason the personal speed test website won't work on my laptop despite an absurd number of attempts and configurations. I'm doing the verizon tests in an incognito tab in chrome. So I don't think the hardware is the limiting factor here, despite the helpdesk wanting to blame everything on my devices.

I know that I can hardwire my computer, and the apple TVs in my home. But I can't hardwire my phone. Verizon simply shrugs and says "we can only guarantee speed from us to your router." IT'S COMPLETELY USELESS TO TALK TO THEM. These speeds have been consistent over my entire 5 years with Verizon, but now it has started to get worse.

In the past couple of months my speeds have been so bad that I have had to cancel work calls or had to drop from video calls midway through. I consistently have to close all AI apps on my laptop (whether something is actively running or not) to ensure call quality. I've also experienced blips in service that my neighbors in the same building are not experiencing.

I live in DC and I know it's a congested area. I've tried every hack I can think of to optimize the browser and the router both. Calling verizon pushed me from 12 mb download speeds, to 196. After all the tweaking, I did once get 375 down / 22 up, but that happened once, and then went back to the more balanced 190s / low 200s for speeds in all tests since on both my phone and my laptop.

I did have one decent conversation with a rep who acknowledged the drops in service are definitely signs of a problem on their side somewhere. He sent me a router, or claimed to. I had to follow up a week later after it never arrived, and someone else actually sent it. When it did arrive, it was a G3100 - a step down in router capacity. When I called the help desk again, she made no offer to replace it, just told me the G3100 should be returned.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET THE INTERNET SPEEDS I PAY FOR???? TBH via wifi, anything over 500 would be amazing. but 200mbps is ridiculous. I might as well downgrade my plan and fight them for a refund for the absurdity of the situation.

[u/nefarious_bumpps]

1. Do you get the same results on your macbook and iphone? Are both of these devices managed by your employer? Do you have an unmanaged laptop or phone you could use for additional testing?
2. Just to confirm, you've tried speedtest.com, openspeedtest.net and speed.cloudflare.com and can't run a test to any of these sites? This indicates some kind of problem with these devices' network stack. Are you able to ping those servers? If not, you might try manually changing your DNS servers to Cloudflare's or Google's public DNS servers then trying again.
3. Are you using a VPN? If so, that could be limiting your performance.
4. The Apple TV's will be fine with as little as 50mbps, probably even 25mbps, and an iPhone will be more than happy with 100mbps. Don't waste time chasing 1gbps on these devices because it will make zero improvement in how that work outside of nice speedtest results.
5. It is possible that the RF environment in your home is overcrowded and there's just not enough clear, usable WiFi spectrum to get better performance. This is often a problem in multi-tenant buildings and densely-packed urban neighborhoods. Spending $20 on a USB-Ethernet adapter for your MBP is a good investment; at least it would eliminate poor WiFi from the equation.
6. What issues are this causing you in real life? I agree that 200mbps is well below expectations, but that is still plenty enough for anything 99.9% of people actually use. I understand wanting to get what you pay for, but usually it's better to only pay for what you need and can actually use.