Tuesday, August 25, 2009

How Fast is Your Internet Connection? [Reader Poll]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/sSu3HauB11Q/how-fast-is-your-internet-connection

DSL and other high-speed internet services feel like dial-up more often than they should. According to a new study, the U.S. ranks 28th in terms of fastest broadband speeds behind Japan, Sweden, Holland, and other industrialized nations. Where do you rank?

The admittedly partisan labor union group Communications Workers of America compiled a list of broadband speeds for U.S. states (and its territories). Based on the data, America's average broadband speeds clock in at about 5 megabits per second, with Delaware registering the fastest stateside speeds, averaging 9.91 mbps. For its part, Puerto Rico had the slowest rates at 1.04 mbps.

Though the study should be taken with a grain of salt since not all territories were included, among other variables (the article itself notes that the study is not entirely scientific), it does highlight the wide disparity in broadband speeds, both within the U.S. and abroad. South Korea, Japan, Sweden, and Holland, for example, all fared better than America.

This report got us wondering what kind of speeds our readers are used to enjoying (or pulling their hair out over), so head over to one of the previously mentioned bandwidth speed tests (we're quite partial to the classic Speakeasy speed test), give your connection a workout, then let us know how spry your downloads are:


How Fast Is Your Internet Connection?(polls)

Browse the full link to see how your state ranks, then tell us if these findings match up ! with you r own observations. How does broadband stack up where you live? Let us know in the comments.