U.S. Still Lags Way Behind in Internet Speed
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The United States continues to lag far behind the world’s other industrialized nations when it comes to Internet speed—and the impact goes far beyond the time it takes your movies or music to download or family videos to upload. It slows the economy and job growth, too.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) third annual Speed Matters survey finds that even at the current rate of improvement, it still would take the United States 15 years to catch up with the global Internet speed leader South Korea, where speeds are four times faster than in the United States.
The average download speed of U.S. Internet connections is 5.1 megabits per second, significantly below the averages of countries like South Korea (20.1 mbps), Japan (16 mbps) and Sweden (12.7 mbps).
High-Speed Internet? Take the Speed Matters Test and Find Out
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We’ve all been there—online waiting, and not patiently—for a connection to check the bank account, order medicine or just get the latest Hollywood gossip. You mutter to yourself, “This is high speed and it’s costing me how much a month?”
You might be one of those folks in a low-income urban or rural area where, even if you wanted to pay for high-speed Internet service, the only option available is the dreaded dial-up.
Now you can do something about it. Take the Speed Matters test.
Speed Matters, a campaign by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), 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. One of the campaign’s tools is the Speed Matters test that measures the speed of your Internet connection to see if it jives with speed your provider promised. Click here to take the Speed Matters test.
