U.S. Still Lags Behind Many Countries in Internet Speed

When it comes to Internet speed, the United States is improving -- at a snail's pace.

CWA's third annual Speed Matters report on Internet speed is getting a lot of buzz, with industry officials, regulators and lots of others talking about it. It's been covered by national and local newspapers and radio and television stations across the country.

The United States ranks 28th in the world in terms of Internet speed, with countries like Japan, South Korea, Sweden and others far ahead. "At our current rate of progress, it will take the United States 15 years to catch up with current Internet speeds in South Korea which are currently four times faster than the U.S.," CWA President Larry Cohen said.

Check out how your state and county compare at www.speedmatters.org. The report found that only 20 percent of users had Internet speeds anywhere those of South Korea and other top-ranked countries and nearly 20 percent of those taking the speed test didn't even measure up to the FCC's definition of high speed, a slow 768 kilobits per second.

Speed matters, Cohen said, because new jobs and America's ability to compete in a high-tech age are directly linked to Internet speed and access. "Continued job growth, innovation and rural development require high-speed, universal networks," he said, as do advances in tele-medicine, distance learning and new applications being developed every day.