5 ms·

Akamai: World internet speed increasing except for US

31 points by codexon 17y ago

bmalicoat 17y ago
I wish that there was highspeed everywhere and more importantly that it wasn't so expensive. However comparing the US to other countries with way fewer square miles to cover and more densely populated areas is unfair. Taking those factors into consideration makes the US's position not so embarrassing. The telco's and ISP's control of the infrastructure though, is still embarrassing and in need of reform.
- pyre 17y ago
  Rank Country Pop.Density ---- ------------- ----------------- 1. South Korea 493/km^2 (21st) 2. Japan 337.4/km^2 (30th) 3. Hong Kong 6076.4/km^2 (4th) 4. Romania 90/km^2 (104th) 5. Sweden 20.6/km^2 (192nd) 6. Ireland 73.4/km^2 (??) 7. Netherlands 396/km^2 (24th) 8. Switzerland 188/km^2 (65th) 9. Denmark 127.9/km^2 (78th) 10. Czech Republic 132/km2 (77th) ... 18. United States 32/km^2 (178th) Sweden manages to be #5 with a smaller population density than the United States. source: Wikipedia
SamAtt 17y ago
I don't dispute the conclusions in this article nor do I think the U.S. is trying hard enough to build its Internet infrastructure. But these comparisons are a little unfair. If you take the top 2 countries in speed (South Korea and Japan) you realize there's a huge space disparity. South Korea has a total area of 38,622 sq mi while Japan has a total of 145,925 sq mi. While on the U.S. side Texas alone is 268,820 sq mi of land while the country itself is 3,794,101 sq mi total. So yes the U.S. might be a little slower in deploying high speed lines but the effort involved in running cables and building up that infrastructure is far more significant.
- DarkShikari 17y ago
  I see this argument made almost daily despite it being completely invalid. If it was true, US cities, the high density areas, would have speeds comparable to countries such as Estonia (12mbps), Japan (50+mbps), and so forth. However, US internet sucks, even in the cities. In my experience there is almost no correlation between density and quality of internet. And don't make the argument that it's due to the distance between cities: fiber trunklines cost almost nothing compared to the last-mile costs of wiring thousands of neighborhoods. What is true is a correlation between competition and quality of internet. Areas with only one provider almost inevitably have terrible service. The excuse that "US internet is worse because our country is larger" is a cheap cop-out to avoid admitting that our telecommunications infrastructure is in many ways worse than some third-world countries.
  - ronnier 17y ago
    http://www.speedtest.net/result/683977929.png http://www.speedtest.net/result/683977929.png Not bad. I know many around Texas with equivalent speeds.
    - CalmQuiet 17y ago
      Please say a prayer for your rural friends who are trying to survive on DSL: http://www.speedtest.net/result/684003092.png http://www.speedtest.net/result/684003092.png Edit: Forgot to tell you "the downside": it's $65/mo :/ PS: Sure there is "an alternative": ~satellite~
      - ronnier 17y ago
        Do you have 3G access there? I was able to pull down 3MB/s over my mobile phone. That's a possible solution.
        sailormoon 17y ago
        24Mb/s over 3G (or even 3.5G)? Impossible. Perhaps you meant 3Mb/s? That's doable, but the latency and reliability is terrible compared to DSL IMO.
quellhorst 17y ago
In some parts of the USA you have excellent bandwidth! Verizon provides me with 50mbps fiber in Dallas. http://www.speedtest.net/result/684079289.png http://www.speedtest.net/result/684079289.png
- ascuttlefish 17y ago
  When I go to that site, it gives me a "Missing License Key Error".
s3graham 17y ago
I'm not sure if it's widely true, but my provider (Shaw in Vancouver) does a sneaky thing where they burst me to 25Mb/s downstream for the first few meg of a download, and then put it back to normal (~8Mb/s). It is useful for some real-life cases, but it also makes speedtest.net tests very mis-representative. I think the downstream is quite acceptable for what I pay. The upstream is ass though (0.5Mb/s).

31 points by codexon 17y ago

I wish that there was highspeed everywhere and more importantly that it wasn't so expensive. However comparing the US to other countries with way fewer square miles to cover and more densely populated areas is unfair. Taking those factors into consideration makes the US's position not so embarrassing. The telco's and ISP's control of the infrastructure though, is still embarrassing and in need of reform.

pyre 17y ago
Rank Country Pop.Density ---- ------------- ----------------- 1. South Korea 493/km^2 (21st) 2. Japan 337.4/km^2 (30th) 3. Hong Kong 6076.4/km^2 (4th) 4. Romania 90/km^2 (104th) 5. Sweden 20.6/km^2 (192nd) 6. Ireland 73.4/km^2 (??) 7. Netherlands 396/km^2 (24th) 8. Switzerland 188/km^2 (65th) 9. Denmark 127.9/km^2 (78th) 10. Czech Republic 132/km2 (77th) ... 18. United States 32/km^2 (178th) Sweden manages to be #5 with a smaller population density than the United States. source: Wikipedia

SamAtt 17y ago

I don't dispute the conclusions in this article nor do I think the U.S. is trying hard enough to build its Internet infrastructure. But these comparisons are a little unfair. If you take the top 2 countries in speed (South Korea and Japan) you realize there's a huge space disparity. South Korea has a total area of 38,622 sq mi while Japan has a total of 145,925 sq mi. While on the U.S. side Texas alone is 268,820 sq mi of land while the country itself is 3,794,101 sq mi total. So yes the U.S. might be a little slower in deploying high speed lines but the effort involved in running cables and building up that infrastructure is far more significant.

DarkShikari 17y ago
I see this argument made almost daily despite it being completely invalid. If it was true, US cities, the high density areas, would have speeds comparable to countries such as Estonia (12mbps), Japan (50+mbps), and so forth. However, US internet sucks, even in the cities. In my experience there is almost no correlation between density and quality of internet. And don't make the argument that it's due to the distance between cities: fiber trunklines cost almost nothing compared to the last-mile costs of wiring thousands of neighborhoods. What is true is a correlation between competition and quality of internet. Areas with only one provider almost inevitably have terrible service. The excuse that "US internet is worse because our country is larger" is a cheap cop-out to avoid admitting that our telecommunications infrastructure is in many ways worse than some third-world countries.
- ronnier 17y ago
  http://www.speedtest.net/result/683977929.png http://www.speedtest.net/result/683977929.png Not bad. I know many around Texas with equivalent speeds.
  - CalmQuiet 17y ago
    Please say a prayer for your rural friends who are trying to survive on DSL: http://www.speedtest.net/result/684003092.png http://www.speedtest.net/result/684003092.png Edit: Forgot to tell you "the downside": it's $65/mo :/ PS: Sure there is "an alternative": ~satellite~
    - ronnier 17y ago
      Do you have 3G access there? I was able to pull down 3MB/s over my mobile phone. That's a possible solution.
      - sailormoon 17y ago
        24Mb/s over 3G (or even 3.5G)? Impossible. Perhaps you meant 3Mb/s? That's doable, but the latency and reliability is terrible compared to DSL IMO.

quellhorst 17y ago

In some parts of the USA you have excellent bandwidth! Verizon provides me with 50mbps fiber in Dallas. http://www.speedtest.net/result/684079289.png http://www.speedtest.net/result/684079289.png

ascuttlefish 17y ago
When I go to that site, it gives me a "Missing License Key Error".

s3graham 17y ago

I'm not sure if it's widely true, but my provider (Shaw in Vancouver) does a sneaky thing where they burst me to 25Mb/s downstream for the first few meg of a download, and then put it back to normal (~8Mb/s). It is useful for some real-life cases, but it also makes speedtest.net tests very mis-representative. I think the downstream is quite acceptable for what I pay. The upstream is ass though (0.5Mb/s).