These days, Internet speeds are an international bragging point. In a report issued by the Communications Workers of America, South Korea apparently wins, with the fastest Internet speed time in the world, clocking in at 20.4 megabits per second. That’s four times faster that what we get here in the U.S.—on average, about 5.1 mbps.
Physorg.com reports:
“The US has not made significant improvement in the speeds at which residents connect to the Internet,” the report said. “Our nation continues to fall far behind other countries.”
“People in Japan can upload a high-definition video in 12 minutes, compared to a grueling 2.5 hours at the US average upload speed,” the report said.
Fine, so the Japanese can download videos faster than we can (not that we’re jealous or anything). Of course, not too surprisingly, there’s a disparity even within the U.S.—people living in areas like New York have faster Web service, while states like Alaska and Montana enjoy the slowest Internet speeds. Apparently, during the speedmatters.org test, 18 percent of the people downloading material in the U.S. did so at speeds that are considered merely “basic broadband” connection. Ouch!
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Image: flickr/ roland
September 1st, 2009 at 8:17 am
Imagine coming to Malaysia where 1 megabit/second is a luxury
September 1st, 2009 at 11:09 am
“Fine, so the Japanese can download videos faster than we can ”
The major problem is that they can UPLOAD faster. In the crowd generated content web we browse all the time now, this is important.
Upload is also your bottleneck when it comes to “lag” in your popular videogames.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:16 am
What do they pay for these high speed connection rates? It would also be interesting to see the wireless penetration rates.
Maybe the spread of fiber optics in the U.S. will start to even things out.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
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