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The United States ranks 26th in a recent report concerning global Internet speed. Such a ranking puts the US slightly ahead of the world average at 616KBps, according to Pando Networks.
The study analyzed 27 million downloads by 20 million computers in 224 countries from January through June 2011 to determine that the average worldwide download speed is 580KBps. South Korean Internet access is nearly four times faster than what most Americans use. That country ranked first in the study with an average speed of 2,202KBps, surpassing most nations by a large margin. Romania and Bulgaria came in second and third place with average speeds of 1,909KBps and 1,611KBps, respectively.
On the low end, developing nations in Africa and Asia reported painfully slow speeds. The Congo came in dead last at 13KBps, followed by the Central African Republic at 14KBp and Comoros at 23KBps.
"The disparities we found were striking. While, in general, developed economies outpaced the developing world in average download speeds, big names such as the US, UK, France, China and Canada were not even close to being the fastest. Instead, we saw high speeds in markets such as Eastern Europe where focus on infrastructural development and favorable geography promote a higher level of connectivity,” said Robert Levitan, CEO of Pando Networks.
The study further detailed Internet speeds based on cities and ISPs, with Verizon Internet Services providing the fastest connection in the US courtesy of their FIOS network. The fastest six cities are all located in South Korea, with Andover, MA and Bucharest, Romania the only two non-South Korean cities to make the top 10.
User Comments: 30
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hey 1977TA, South Korea's city 'Daegu' has the fastest internet speed in the world.What do you think about it?
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Well, imagine 2 cars racing down a 10 mile stretch of road. The car that runs 220 mph is gonna crush the 160 mph car. Yes, 160 may be considered fast by some, but it's certainly not comparable or on par. For internet speed, America's not even close to Korea's league.
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It is quite clear by now those arguments about the geographical size of the US is a red herring. Even the most affluent and densely populated areas on the east and west coast, that are just as densely populated as the densely populated areas in Europe and Asia, do not get any way near the level of service generally available in countries in Europe and Asia.
Not even the population per square mile in the US is a valid argument. Countries such as Sweden actually have significantly less people per square mile than the whole of US, 87.4/sq. mile in the US versus 53.8/sq. mile in Sweden. Yet, Sweden is far ahead of the US in terms of both subscription cost and speed generally available.
It is about time to acknowledge the fact that the US lags far and increasingly behind due to failed US politics. The government needs to get seriously involved in the internet infrastructure, both in terms of regulation and financing.
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You guys are all talking about this as if those winning countries have better infrastructures and can deliver more bandwidth to their customers than countries lower in the list. This is not true. Where I live, everyone can get a 120Mb connection for a few tenners a month (I've got 50Mb myself) but not everyone chooses to do so. As long as people decide to keep their crappy low bandwidth connection then that doesn't mean the technology isn't there but it does have influence on the ranking in this list.
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I will take it up, or such copy music is close in the music end of the U.K.
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