US broadband's average speed: 3.9Mbps

[Commentary] The latest State of the Internet report from Akamai shows the US trailing in a number of metrics, including average connection speeds and broadband penetration.

For the third quarter of 2009, the average connection speed for the country was 3.9Mbps, placing the US in 18th place globally. Unsurprisingly, South Korea topped the list with an average of 14.6Mbps, almost twice the average of second-place Japan with 7.9Mbps. Recent studies show that US customers also pay a lot more for what they get. For our average of 3.9Mbps, we pay about $40 per month. In France, by comparison, many users have access to a $45 monthly plan that includes 20-30Mbps connections, VoIP service, and HDTV with a DVR included. Such plans in the US regularly exceed $100, and speeds rarely reach those levels.

The Akamai study underscores the need for the National Broadband Plan to encourage expansion of high-speed networking infrastructure as well as drive the necessary competition to make broadband connections more affordable.