Group Calls For Faster U.S. Broadband Speeds
But before you get too smug, compare your speed against the average 63 Mbps downstream speed that the Communications Workers of America (CWA) claims Japan has... Or South Korea (49 Mbps), Finland (21 Mbps), France (17 Mbps), or even Canada (7.6 Mbps) for that matter.
The report states that the overall average dowstream speed for the U.S. is just 2.3 Mbps--only 0.4Mbps faster than the previous year. The states (or territory) with the slowest average downstream speeds are Puerto Rico (499 Kbps), Alaska (814 Kbps), North Dakota (1,164 Kbps), Montana (1,320 Kbps), and Wyoming (1,325 Kbps). As far as upstream speeds go, the U.S. average is 435 Kbps, with the fastest state, Delaware, at 1,483 Kbps, and the slowest state, Alaska, at 246 Kbps.
These results were collected from a survey of almost 230,000 Internet users who used the Speed Matters Internet speed test between May 2007 and May 2008. The Speed Matters site is an advocacy arm of the CWA, a large labor union of communications and media workers. The mission of the site is to promote high-speed Internet connections in the U.S., for economic growth, global competition, and to get broadband Internet connections into the homes of low-income families.
;)
"This isn’t about how fast someone can download a full-length movie. Speed matters to our economy and our ability to remain competitive in a global marketplace. Rural development, telemedicine and distance learning all rely on truly high-speed, universal networks." -- Larry Cohen, CWA President
The report offers an eight-step plan for how the CWA envisions the U.S. can meet the CWA's mission:
- "Establish a national policy goal" of constructing an infrastructure that supports 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream by 2010.
- "Develop state and national maps" of broadband deployment, adoption, speed, and prices.
- "Create public-private partnerships" and task forces to stimulate high-speed Internet deployment and adoption.
- Reform universal service subsidies to "support affordable, high-speed Internet for all."
- Adopt programs that "provide free or low-cost computers to low-income households, expand community-based digital literacy, and fund grants for community-based public-interest broadband applications and services."
- Create government "subsidies, low-interest loans, and tax incentives" to spur "the deployment of faster networks."
- Ensure that there is "no degradation of service or censoring any lawful content," while recognizing that "reasonable network management is necessary to preserve an effective open Internet."
- Create public policies that protect consumers and workers, and that "should support the growth of good, career jobs, and require the public reporting of deployment, actual speed, price, and service."
At least some of these steps are part of the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which was introduced by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) in May 2007. The bill is currently with the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation--of which Senator Inouye is the chairman.
If you'd like to see how your downstream and upstream speeds compare to your neighbors, check out the Speed Matters Internet speed test here. How do your speeds compare to your state's average? Let us know in the comments below.
Comments
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Wow I love my 15mb connection but I don't see how someone in japan can use a 60+mbs. |
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My house could with the wife streaming video of the olmipycs and the kids on youtube and streaming video everywhere on gods green earth and of course 8 people gaming in my house at any 1 time. Wish i had a 100mbps |
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Maybe but my girlfriend watches the Olympics and I was watching tekzilla in HD last night and downloading the new Elive distro and not touching it. Gaming online takes a surprisingly small amount of bandwidth. I bet some torrenters could use it up. I'm going to run a bandwidth monitor for a few days and see what I use. |
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IPTV |
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Interesting my download is 20500-22841 and upload was 1497-1509 over 3 tests it says I upload faster than any other country and only loose the download test to Japan. |
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My up and down are right at 15/15mb |
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Where do you live, bob? |
Richmond, VA |
shanewu:|
I need faster speeds.... much faster 300kb down and 75kb up.... |
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Hey man my mom only gets 150/30 |
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I get 8md down yet only 684k up |
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Slow uptimes really kill you overall speed. I hate it when you get some crazy good downloads but complete crap uploads. |
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Its the scurge of the south...lol...This entire area in every direction for 200 miles same issue. |
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With EVERYTHING being streamed everywhere now-a-days i would say that upping our overall speeds are probably nothing but beneficial for consumers... and Enterprises in many cases |
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Bob...So, what company in Richmond offers 15Mb/15Mb? I've never heard of an ISP that "good" in the states. Are you paying much for that? |
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I have verizon FioS. |
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How about insteading comparing the massive USA against these smaller, easily wired countries we instead compare states? Do so and you'll find we're not that bad off. |
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That's whats weird I live about 40 miles north of Atlanta. So I saw the test and clicked it. When I got the first results I didn't believe it so I did it two more times. The only thing specific is this I have 2 on board nics there both pci xpress. I run em with a network bridge through XP pros network setup. But that's pretty common I also have another computer hooked to it. Either way that's the test results I got. |
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Check this out this is hilarious there must be no internet customers on my node or something |
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I still don't get this how in the he77 can I have one of the fastest....... I have the regular power connection. I don't even have the highest speed offered I called and asked my ISP. They tried to get me to upgrade ROFL... I told them I was just calling to ask where my connection rated in price performance level and they said I was the standard not the limited not the extra speed middle of the road....... |
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Don't you have FioS rapid1. THey try to get me to upgrade everytime I call about anything. Great internet horrible tech support by the way. On the bright side I now now a few things about configuring a router |
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yeah, I am a hardware network engineer so I guess I have extended knowledge and have the network tweaked a bit, but I don't have FIOS yet. I asked about it but she said it wasn't here yet and wouldn't give me any definite on FIOS timeline. The only thing I can figure is multifaceted to a point I worked for Comcast in the past there were connection problems here for several years. Then Comcast bought Adelphia (the old provider) the problems still existed for about a month and a half. I wouldn't take any sole responsibility on this but I called and raised a bit of hell for a couple weeks I assume others were to. Then they ran 2 new lines of the thick underground cabling to my building. The buildings here are somewhat strange in that each floor of each building has a Siemens Com room. All the phone lines Cable Lines etc for the whole floor run through here which is a very nice (corporate setup) that you wouldn't expect in an apartment complex.On top of that the TV signal is mixed between dish and cable. So at least that splits the amount of customers on the line then the amount who have cable internet must be well under capacity for me to have a signal as strong as I do. I guess it's luck of the draw but from the strength I see with the signal level I have I would say there's 10 or less cable internet subscribers on this line for this floor of the building. |
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Thats nice rapid. I was never that lucky when I had comcast. |
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I am visiting my mother in Japan who has FTTH connection whose speed is claimed to be nominal 100Mbps Up/Down. I personally measured connection speeds to and from various points and their typical speeds as follows: |
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Well I am skeptical of that test or there testing method. When I test on DSL reports I don't get that speed. I get decent speed but it's well under the astronomical figures the speed matters test gives. So somethings fishy here about the speed matters test as I tested through four sites around the nation on DSLreports. So I don't believe the speed matters test read. |
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Some ISPs give you a speedbump when you have a speet test running. |
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