Penn State study finding rural broadband speeds are even slower than suspected

Pennsylvania State University researchers rounding the bend on a year-long study of broadband access in rural Pennsylvania are finding that speeds are even slower than previously thought. Bradford County, on the NY border in Northeastern PA, has slow connectivity speeds, but according to the most recent map available from the Penn State study, it's not among the worst. Adjacent counties like Sullivan and Wyoming had the slowest speeds, roughly 0-3 megabits per second (mbps), far below the FCC's 25 mbps benchmark for "high speed."  Penn State found speeds differed from what providers had been promising. "What we are documenting is profoundly different than what we were told, the speeds far slower," said Sascha Meinrath, the Palmer Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State. "Places we were told have access appear to have limited to no access. The important word is appear." In PA, 6 percent of the population about 803,645 people do not have access to 25 mpbs broadband.