U.S. internet speeds are the tortoise to S. Korea's hare
September 28, 2009
Last month's study by the Communications Workers of America said that South Korea's average download speed of 20.4 megabits per second (mbps)was roughly four times as fast as America's average. The study ranked the U.S. 28th in the world in broadband speed.
Almost one in five participants in the speedmatters.org survey had download speeds below that which the FCC defines as basic broadband. Well over half had insufficient download speed to stream high-definition video.
In contrast, the study said, 90 percent of Japanese homes had access to high-speed fiber-to-the-home networks capable of 100 mbps - about 20 times the speed of the average American internet connection. Only 67 percent of urban and suburban households had broadband access, and just 46 percent of rural households.
The fastest average connection speeds were found in Delaware and Rhode Island, while Alaska's were the slowest. It should be noted that the Communications Workers of America depend on the construction of new networks, as well as the communications industry as a whole, for both their membership and their livelihood.
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