Speed matters on the Internet, America is trailing and may never catch up
Communications Workers of America
July 2007
Why does speed matter? Speed defines what is possible on the Internet. It determines whether we will have the 21st century networks we need to grow jobs and our economy, and whether we will be able to support innovations in telemedicine, education, public safety, and public services to improve our lives and communities. Most U.S. Internet connections today are not fast enough to permit interactive home-based medical monitoring, multi-media distance learning, or to send and receive data to run a home-based business.
Between September 2006 and May 2007, nearly 80,000 people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia — nearly all of them with broadband connections — have gone to the Speedmatters.org site to take an Internet speed test and measure how fast their computers can upload and download data. This is the first national survey of actual Internet speeds, and the results show just how the U.S. continues to lag behind other countries. The median download speed for the 50 states and the District of Columbia was 1.9 megabits per second (mbps). In Japan, the median download speed is 61 mbps, or 30 times faster than the U.S. The U.S. also trails South Korea at 45 mbps, Finland at 21 mbps, Sweden at 18 mbps, and Canada at 7.6 mbps. The median upload speed from the Speedmatters.org test was just 371 kilobits per second (kbps), far too slow for patient monitoring or too transmit large files such as medical records.
Report includes one-page summaries of results in each of the states.