National Study of Real-Time Internet Connection Speeds Shows U.S. Falling Further Behind Other Advanced Nations

http://www.cwa-union.org/news/national-study-of-real-time-internet-connection-speeds-shows-u-s-falling-further-behind-other-advanced-nations.html

August 12, 2008

For more information, Jeff Miller or Candice Johnson, CWA Communications, 202-434-1168, jmiller@cwa-union.org and cjohnson@cwa-union.org

 EDITOR'S NOTE:
 A full list of state rankings is available at www.speedmatters.org/pages/state.html. (Washington, DC.)—The results of a nationwide study of Internet connection speeds in the United States reveal little progress over the previous year in the country's median data download speed. At the present rate—with a gain of only four-tenths of one megabit per second—it will take the U.S. more than one hundred years to catch up with current Internet speeds in Japan.

The national report is based on aggregated data from nearly 230,000 Internet users who took the online Speed Matters Speed Test (www.speedmatters.org), a project of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The Speed Test, which measures the last-mile speed of a user's Internet connection, shows that the median real-time download speed in the U.S. is a mere 2.3 megabits per second (mbps). The best available estimates show average download speeds in Japan of 63 mbps, in South Korea of 49 mbps and in France of 17 mbps.[1] That means the same multimedia file that takes four minutes to download in South Korea would take nearly an hour and a half to download in the U.S. "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," said Larry Cohen, president, Communications Workers of America. "Rural development, telemedicine and distance learning all rely on truly high-speed, universal networks."

Speed matters: A report on Internet speeds in all 50 states (PDF; 5.0 MB)
Source: Communications Workers of America

State Ranking Chart (PDF; 177 KB)