The US remains very behind in broadband speeds for industrialized countries, with an average speed of only 5 Mbps. This compares to South Korea’s 20.4 Mbps and Japan’s 15.8 Mbps.
Within the US though, speeds vary greatly. According to a recent study average speeds range from Delaware’s 9.91 Mbps all the way to Montana’s 2.32 Mbps. California, perhaps one of the most tech friendly states, ranked only 11th with 6.64 Mbps.
“Every American should have affordable access to high-speed Internet, no matter where they live. This is essential to economic growth and will help maintain our global competitiveness,” said Larry Cohen, the president of the company that conducted the study.
Still though, it should be noted that the study is not perfect. Some states were blessed with more data points to draw from than others, and it did also include US territories such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, where notably slow speeds lowered the average. But, at any rate, we’re still quite behind our Asian friends.