U.S. High-Speed Internet Outdated and Lagging

So-called high-speed Internet broadband connection speeds [in the U.S.] are "pathetic" compared with other industrialized nations, a communications union report claimed.

The study was commissioned by the Communications Workers of America in Washington in a bid to get the Federal Communications Commission to redefine what constitutes true high speed, USA Today reported Tuesday.

The study found Japanese Internet users enjoy speeds of 661 megabits per second, South Korea averages 45 mps, France has 17 mps, and Canada has an average 7 mps. The median U.S. speed was 1.97 mps, the study said.

The FCC defines "high speed" as 200 kilobits per second but that benchmark was adopted more than 12 years ago when dial-up connections were the norm.


SOURCE:
PhysOrg.com

This really was'nt a surprise to me, as I already knew we were pretty slow when it comes
to average Internet connection speed, but this report really does show the gap.

It's sadly ironic that the country that produced the Internet is lagging behind all other
Industrialized nations when it comes to Internet connection speed itself.


Comments, Opinions?

Oh, and also, here is a link in the article that takes you to a site that takes you to an advocacy
site that has an Internet connection speed test, which I think is interesting.
The test can be found here: Internet Connection Speed Test

I was actually sort of surprised by my results, since my own download speed was above
all the national averages except for Japans, and my Upload speed was above all the national
averages including Japans.




I'm curious to know what your opinions on this are and if you take it, where you rank
when ti comes to connection speed.

Man, my internet is slow compared to japan My internet browses through webpages and stuff really quick, I cant immagine how it is in japan, but my downloads are pretty slow, I wish I had japanese internet I think I'm going to import my internet, or just run a long ethernet line

coz the US is building a better internet perhaps?

Internet2 - wikipedia

slow? i dont think so.

February 20, 2006 - The speed record is broken. Data is sent at 8.8 gigabits per second over a distance of 30,000 km for a period of 45 minutes.

Internet2
Slate

the last link goes to a Slate article about the better, faster internet.

... In just 2 minutes and 41 seconds, it pulls down more than 500 megabytes of Linux code from servers at Duke University, a task that would normally take hours.

[edit on 28-6-2007 by toreishi]

We are not as obsessed as the South Koreans who wants it so they can play Starcraft. Imagine Starcraft 2 coming out.