A survey performed by Speedmatters shows that Americans are not global leaders when it comes to Internet speed, as expected. The company determines the average Internet speed in different countries through tests that show how fast people can download files from its website.
Moreover, the U.S. is only the 15th in the top of the countries with best Internet speed. Although "high-tech innovation, job growth, telemedicine, distance learning, rural development, public safety, and e-government" all require broadband connections and fast access to the information that can be found on the Internet, both institutions and common users seem to be satisfied with their old connections.
Countries like Japan, South Korea, Finland, France or Canada turned out in the test better than the U.S. when it comes to this particular matter. While in the U.S., the average download speed that was recorded barely reached 2.3 mbps (megabits per second), the Japanese enjoy a speed of 63 mbps, which is almost 30 times better than the one registered in the North American country.
Naturally, the survey cannot pretend to be an exhaustive study and to offer close to 100% accuracy in the results. Nevertheless, according to the company that conducted the survey, this could actually mean that the average U.S. Internet speed is actually lower than indicated.
"Very few people with dial-up took the test because it took too long. About 15 percent of Americans still connect to the Internet with a dial-up connection. So the median speeds in this report are actually higher than if dial-up Internet users had chosen to participate in the survey. In other words, even these dismal statistics paint a rosier picture than the reality." says the official release that disclosed the results of the survey.
The year-over-year growth of the Internet speed in the U.S. is not impressive either, with only 0.4 mbps added to last year's value. At this pace, Speedmatters underscores, it would take 100 years until the U.S. reaches the Internet speed that the Japanese already have at this moment.
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