U.S. Internet Speed Could Be 100 Years Behind Japan

by Mike Hall, Aug 13, 2008

If the average U.S. Internet speed continues to improve at the same rate it did from 2007 to 2008, we won’t catch up with Japan’s current download speed for 100 years. That’s the troubling finding from the Communications Workers of America’s (CWA’s) Speed Matters campaign.

The campaign is part of the union’s effort to promote national and state policies for affordable, universal high-speed broadband networks and end the digital divide. This week, Speed Matters released its second annual state-by-state report on Internet speeds.

During the past year, more than 230,000 people took the campaign’s speed test on their home computers and found that we’re not downloading or uploading much faster than a year ago.

The report shows how far behind the rest of the industrialized world the United States remains in developing a reliable high-speed broadband network. For all of you number crunchers, here’s the breakdown:

The 2008 median real-time download speed in the U.S. is a mere 2.3 megabits per second (mbps). This represents a gain of only 0.4 mbps over last year’s median download speed. It compares to an average download speed in Japan of 63 mbps….U.S. also trails South Korea at 49 mbps, Finland at 21 mbps, France at 17 mbps, and Canada at 7.6 mbps.

Developing reliable high-speed Internet goes far beyond downloading your favorite music, movie and game, or uploading the family vacation video to share with Aunt Sally and the kids in Laramie. There is a major economic payoff for the nation.   

We need high-speed Internet for our homes, schools, hospitals, and workplaces. Speed defines what is possible on the Internet. It determines whether we will have the 21st century networks we need to create the jobs of the future, develop our economy, and support innovations in telemedicine, education, public safety, and public services to improve our lives and communities.

Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that will provide the research and funding to help ensure every American has affordable high-speed Internet access. But the Senate has yet to act on its version (S. 1492) that also will provide funding to states to increase broadband deployment and adoption.

Click here to send a message to your senators urging them to support the bill. Click here to learn more about Speed Matters and here to download the state-by-state report.

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