Data company: Nassau ranks highest in online speed

Web surfers in Nassau County clock the fastest Internet speeds in the nation, according to a list released by a data and analytics company.

Last year, for consumers in Nassau, the median download speed - how quickly data moves from the Internet to a computer - was more than three times faster than the national median, said ID Insight, based in Northfield, Minn. The median upload speed - how quickly data moves from a computer to the Internet - was more than eight times faster than the national median.

Neighboring Suffolk came in 22nd on the list of 3,000 counties - still in the top 1 percent.

The list was based on analyzing millions of residential Internet transactions - from online shopping to news sites, and address-related data, said ID Insight president Adam Elliot. He estimated that the data captured represented about 30 percent of households.

"When we looked at all the 3,000 counties in the country, analyzed all those transactions, the associated speeds and rank-ordered them, Nassau was the first on the list," Elliot said.

On Long Island, Elliot said the leading Internet provider was Cablevision's Optimum Online, followed by Verizon. Cablevision also owns Newsday. Elliot said that since higher-speed plans were available in both counties, the reason Nassau was faster was that "more people are upgrading in Nassau than they are in Suffolk."