US 4G lags behind most of the developed world

[dkpope]

The idea that the U.S. is falling behind other nations, especially in the science and technology categories, isn’t new. But if you want more detailed information, there’s a new graph to illustrate exactly how far behind we are in LTE speeds.

Open Signal recently released a report that shows the U.S. is now in 58th place worldwide for LTE speeds. For the report, the company averaged different carriers and locations to answer different questions. According to the report, New Zealand is the best (when it comes to LTE and Lord of the Rings scenery), with 36Mbps on average, and Singapore is second with 33Mbps -- both well within the range of broadband-quality speeds. The U.S. straggles along at an average of 10Mbps.

Looking at the graph, it's clear that the dots representing carriers with faster LTE speeds are much higher than the U.S. dots. Some of the (few) dots below the U.S. represent Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

Something to keep in mind is that the ten countries with better LTE coverage than the U.S., excluding Japan, are smaller than California. Two of them, Hong Kong and Singapore, are cities. But in that same train of thought, China has faster LTE and just as much LTE coverage.

Before we all despair, when considering LTE coverage things get a little brighter. The U.S. sits at number 10 in that ranking, with about 85 to 65 percent of the population using LTE.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/62222-us-4g-lags-behind-most-developed-world.html

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

But in that same train of thought, China has faster LTE and just as much LTE coverage.

Well.. they measure coverage by % of population covered, and that technique doesn't help the USA's numbers any. I think this is an ok way to do it, but don't look at Canada and see 70% and think 70% of Canada has LTE coverage. Not even close.

The USA has a very spread out population without geographical regions preventing people from living in some areas. China has a lot of mountains where no one lives, and something like 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US.

 

[p51d007]

Always ticks me off to hear "the USA falls behind in coverage". Bunch of CRAP!
If the USA were the size of S. Korea, Japan, Germany, England etc, our coverage would be
better, but, all the before mentioned countries, would FIT within the USA, with room to spare!
The continental USA has FOUR TIME ZONES.
Not a fair comparison, considering how SPREAD OUT the population of the USA is.
I heard a report, that the ENTIRE POPULATION of the world, would fit inside the borders of
Texas alone.

 

[Axiarus]

"US lags behind most of the developed world" I fixed the title for you.

 

[Zenodroid]

Take a look at the faroe islands us, ur far ahead of this crappy 48k ppl populations with 4g just arrived this year.

 

[Puiu]

Always ticks me off to hear "the USA falls behind in coverage". Bunch of CRAP!
If the USA were the size of S. Korea, Japan, Germany, England etc, our coverage would be
better, but, all the before mentioned countries, would FIT within the USA, with room to spare!
The continental USA has FOUR TIME ZONES.
Not a fair comparison, considering how SPREAD OUT the population of the USA is.
I heard a report, that the ENTIRE POPULATION of the world, would fit inside the borders of
Texas alone.

even in big cities the US is still behind the rest of the world. you don't have to go in rural areas to see that. and the prices are very high.
and you have to remember that while the US is large, it still technically functions as a group of smaller countries that are under the same flag.
the problem is a severe lack of competition at high speed internet. it's the same for the UK too, another country you would expect to be well developed and it even has a much smaller territory. the internet in the UK might be even worse than in the US. (with BT being their only large ISP)
I think you can still hear the dial up modem sounds when you use an ATM in London ^_^

PS: just to brag - I am currently using an 100Mbps up/ 100Mbps down internet connection for just 7$ in Romania. After I upgrade my router and buy a new laptop that is able to use wireless ac I'll switch to an 1Gbps connection for 14$ (this also includes free unlimited nationwide 3G - usb modem+sim card). I put the 3G sim in my second sim slot on my phone even though I do have 1GB on the regular one.