One would think since the USA created internet (yes we did) we’d be top dog as far as adoption of broadband is concerned.
We’re not. In fact, we’re in 15th place. On average, the fastest download last-mile speed is 2.3mbps.
Just to give you an indication of how slow our connectivity speed is, Japan (who always kicks everyone’s ass in tech) has an average download speed of 63mbps. To us that’s nothing but a pipe dream. We think 20mbps is a godsend. Bear in mind the 63 is an average download rate in Japan – not the fastest speed.
Can you imagine the stuff you could download at an average 63mbps rate?
A very sobering thought.
In the US, the state with the best median download speed in Rhode Island at 6.8mbps. The worst is Alaska at 0.8mbps.
At the present time there is a an Act on the books the government is looking to pass called the Broadband Data Improvement Act so we can at least get enough capacity to have nationwide 10mbps download and 1mbps upload by 2010.
Unfortunately that’s the best we can look forward to – but at least it’s an improvement should the Act be put into effect (which it should).
[Source: ChannelWeb]
‘Not that much better in the UK either: I live within reasonable distance of a telephone exchange and get broadband from BT over the copper wires at between 3 and 7 mbps.
Some people are forced to use Sky (Satellite) or dial-up because they live too far from any exchange to get broadband and outside of the more rural cabled areas of the country so they can’t get Virgin Media’s alleged 20mbps cable broadband even.
It appears as a weird scenario when you note that, as a general rule, the more prominent a country is in the political arena the slower its Internet speeds appear to be, at least to a certain extent.
heh I live in RI but which isp is it that has the best download speed?
Also most isps limit bandwidth so even if they “say” you “will” have so and so download/upload speed, you would most likely never fully experience it and only get a margin instead.
Also, Japan on the whole covers a very small area compared to the US and other infrastructures. Distances are shorter thereby needing fewer hops and fewer translations between services, machines, protocols, mediums, on, and on, and on. Also, the difference in price between companies and areas is prohibitive. For instance I live in an area that just happens to be on the edge of two seperate DSL providers. I live directly in one of thoses area and my neighbor across the street is in the others area. We use the same infrastructure, lines go to the same line on the same pole. Yet, provider one charges me $34US for 3mbps, while my neighbor has provider number two and receives 6mbps for $30US! On the same line! Can I switch, my location across the street is not in there call area! We need more competition in more than one area in this industry. Just my $0.02
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sharron, appears to me to touch a question i have had for many a moon. over the years i have had occasion to work with private phone companies who wanted to provide better services to rural areas and into states with large rural areas. we seem to always find strong resistance to the idea. Why i can only sermise. but when you consider that ALASKA is last on the totem pole??? Isn’t that where a Vice Presidential Canidate is from. I do not believe our poiticians like high speed. Why do they not?????
I would love to be in your shoes to be able to get 3
mbps for only $34. The City I live in in NW Iowa has a monopoly on the whole city and I pay $54 a month for their fastest speed of 2mbps. I play video games online and it lags all the time. I am so frustrated with slow internet for outrageous prices. Towns only 10 minutes away have 2-4 seperate providers to choose from but they aren’t allowed into my town. They aren’t real cheap either, but faster and cheaper than I am paying. The other speed option was 1mbps for $42 a month. Rediculous!
[...] US is grossly behind the times when it comes to our broadband speed. The last time I wrote about this, the US ranked 15th in the world, with an extremely poor last-mile average download rate of [...]