Is your high speed connection really fast? Or just pretending to be?
It’s not exactly news, but I figure this is worth pointing out. A recent study by the Communications Workers of America shows that high speed internet connections in the United States are considerably slower than those found in some other developed nations.
The study found that the median download speed in the U.S. is 2.35 megabits per second. That compared quite poorly with estimates for Japan at 63 mbps, South Korea at 49 mbps and France at 17 mbps. According to the study, a file that takes four minutes to download in South Korea would take nearly 90 minutes to download in this country.
“This isn’t about how fast someone can download a full-length movie. Speed matters to our economy and our ability to remain competitive in a global marketplace,” said Larry Cohen, president, Communications Workers of America. “Rural development, telemedicine and distance learning all rely on truly high-speed, universal networks.”
Things were even worse for Missouri, where the median download speed was only 1.88 mbps. Illinois , however, fared slightly better than the national average, coming in at 2.52 mbps.
Tim has covered a wide range of topics, including tourism, crime, aviation and gambling, since becoming a reporter in 1990. The Oklahoma native joined the Post-Dispatch in 2007 after spending nine years in Orlando. In his spare time, he's often exploring one virtual world or another. He can be reached at tbarker@post-dispatch.com. 
What blows me away is how most companies and urban people think that the whole world is on high speed. I’m a computer tech at our local computer store in perryville mo. We also provide internet access. Out of 700 customers I have 32 DSL and all the rest are dial up! Thats all thats available for most people outside of a city. Once you get 2 to 3 miles away from a main phone office, dialup is all you have to pick from. Satellite and air cards are to expensive for most to justify the cost.Its sad that a person in china living in a hut, in the middle of a desert can get a 65mbps download speed and here in america i have a lady who is within city limits but cannot get dsl because she lives to far away from the telco’s main office. She’s happy when she can get 48kbps! Where’s the priority in this country! Oh thats right its everywhere except here!
@Larry - Your example of a China person is ridiculous because distance from the telco office applies there equally, so I’ll take your comment as tongue-in-cheek. What you aren’t considering is rural areas in other countries don’t have any internet access at all. Those who do have it, probably have faster average speeds than we do but they’re not trying to cover a 3000+ mile wide country. I’m sure we’d have a lot better speeds if the USA was only as big as Missouri and Illinois combined.
This doesn’t surprise me. I have DSL and while it’s still better than dial up since I still have use of my phone line. I am constantly frustrated by the fact that it doesn’t seem very fast compared to what I was led to expect by the sales pitches and those who told me I should get it.
Cable-connection has Intervals of very SLOW speeds (near zero), in Clayton (Wydown / Moorlands):
At $57.99/month, for the best CABLE speeds (Charter), during the evening the connection is often unusable (too slow).
When it operates normally (mornings) the speeds are acceptable.
Is the local CHARTER CABLE connection OVER-SUBSCRIBED??
At least the broadband we have here in Missouri isn’t capped at 5GB a month. Yet.
I allegedly have DSL. This morning download was about 300kbps, up was 250. I’m less than half a mile from I-44. Called my ISP, and they said all was fine, and it was the telco’s problem– static on the line. Well, when we arrived home two weeks ago after a week away, we did not have any phone line at all, and it took 2 days to get basic phone back, and it wasn’t for lack of paying the bill.
I have a relative who is in the CWA, and he says that ATT isn’t interested in maintaining wires– they want the whole world wireless. Ask people who were depending on their cell phones on 9-1l what a fiasco that can be.
Guess I better go run the speedtest.