3 ms·

Your source that US internet is competitive is not a reliable one, as it lumps together business connectivity and residential connectivity. The average resident

by gergles 12y ago

Your source that US internet is competitive is not a reliable one, as it lumps together business connectivity and residential connectivity. The average residential connection in the US is a joke compared to any other developed country, in both performance and price.

throwaway2048 12y ago
not to canada sadly, we are even worse off than the USA.
arithewiz 12y ago
I think you should ask the question of why? Looking at this from a connected population perspective, you might change your mind about calling the residential connection in the US a joke. My two cent.
rayiner 12y ago
See Akamai's response: https://blogs.akamai.com/2013/04/clarifying-state-of-the-internet-report-metrics.html https://blogs.akamai.com/2013/04/clarifying-state-of-the-int... ("This data encompasses connections from both residential and business connections, and as such, represents a blend of the observed connection speeds. (The report has never claimed to measure only residential traffic.) Having said that, we believe that the number of residential connections to Akamai's platform greatly outnumbers the number of business connections, so the potential skew caused by higher speed business connections should be minimized.") Also, the U.S. does pretty well on Ookla's survey too, compared to similarly-situated countries: http://www.netindex.com http://www.netindex.com. The U.S. average clocks in at 24.1 megabits. Canada and Australia, two similarly sprawl-y Anglo countries clock in at 21.8 and 14.4, respectively. Germany, France, and the U.K. beat us, though, at 25.4, 33.4, at 26.9 megabits, respectively. However, drilling down, you can see that sparsely-populated central and western states drag down our overall average: http://www.netindex.com/download/2,1/United-States http://www.netindex.com/download/2,1/United-States. In the densely-populated Northeast, speeds are generally above 30 megabits. Virginia is 30.3, Pennsylvania is 29.7, New York 30.2, New Jersey 38.2, Maryland 36.8, Delaware 36.0, Massachusetts 34.0, Connecticut 31.4. These are the places in the U.S. that are comparably dense and urbanized as continental Europe.

by gergles 12y ago

throwaway2048 12y ago

not to canada sadly, we are even worse off than the USA.

arithewiz 12y ago

I think you should ask the question of why? Looking at this from a connected population perspective, you might change your mind about calling the residential connection in the US a joke. My two cent.

rayiner 12y ago

See Akamai's response: https://blogs.akamai.com/2013/04/clarifying-state-of-the-internet-report-metrics.html https://blogs.akamai.com/2013/04/clarifying-state-of-the-int... ("This data encompasses connections from both residential and business connections, and as such, represents a blend of the observed connection speeds. (The report has never claimed to measure only residential traffic.) Having said that, we believe that the number of residential connections to Akamai's platform greatly outnumbers the number of business connections, so the potential skew caused by higher speed business connections should be minimized.") Also, the U.S. does pretty well on Ookla's survey too, compared to similarly-situated countries: http://www.netindex.com http://www.netindex.com. The U.S. average clocks in at 24.1 megabits. Canada and Australia, two similarly sprawl-y Anglo countries clock in at 21.8 and 14.4, respectively. Germany, France, and the U.K. beat us, though, at 25.4, 33.4, at 26.9 megabits, respectively. However, drilling down, you can see that sparsely-populated central and western states drag down our overall average: http://www.netindex.com/download/2,1/United-States http://www.netindex.com/download/2,1/United-States. In the densely-populated Northeast, speeds are generally above 30 megabits. Virginia is 30.3, Pennsylvania is 29.7, New York 30.2, New Jersey 38.2, Maryland 36.8, Delaware 36.0, Massachusetts 34.0, Connecticut 31.4. These are the places in the U.S. that are comparably dense and urbanized as continental Europe.