U.S. Broadband is Unimpressive
While the U.S. is generally regarded as one of the more technologically advanced countries in the world, there may be a lot of room for improvement for its broadband connections. Recent figures released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicate that the U.S. trails behind many other major countries in terms of adoption, speed, and affordability.
Of the 30 member countries of the OECD, the U.S. ranked 15th in broadband adoption per capita, as of December. Critics of the U.S.’s broadband policies attribute this to the lack of broadband access in rural areas of the country, as well as sparse competition in suburban and urban regions.
Broadband speeds in the U.S. are even less impressive. The average download speed for consumer broadband services in the U.S. is 8.9 Mbps (megabits per second), which is slower than the average speeds found in 18 other OECD member countries.
Japan’s average broadband download speed is 93.7 Mbps, while France’s average download speed is 44.2 Mbps, followed by South Korea’s 43.3 Mbps. Sweden, New Zealand, Italy, Portugal, Finland, and Australia each had average download speeds of at least 12 Mbps.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) adds insult to injury by noting that broadband consumers in the U.S. pay more for their connections than those in 17 other OECD countries. This amounts to U.S. broadband subscribers paying at least $2.83 per Mbps of service on a monthly basis. Japanese subscribers pay $0.13 per each Mbps, while subscribers in South Korea, Finland, France, and Sweden all pay less than $0.43 per Mbps on a monthly basis.
Source:
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;352027094;fp;2;fpid;1
