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CWA leading charge for better broadband

by on13 August 2008

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U.S. falls behind in broadband performance

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) realize something that many of us in the U.S. have known for a long time now, which is that unless you are very lucky, the broadband performance in the U.S. is pretty bad when compared to other countries.

The U.S has fallen to 16th behind counties such as Japan, South Korea, Finland, Sweden, France and Canada. The average broadband speed in the U.S. is about 2.3 Mbps on average for download speeds; and when you talk upload speeds, the U.S. is a pitiful 435 Kbps on average.

States including Alaska, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming are among the states with the worst average broadband performance. The lucky ones are those living in Rhode Island, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts that offer the best broadband performance in the U.S. on average.

Senator Daniel Inouye has introduced a legislative Bill called the Broadband Data Improvement Act in May of 2007 to help jump start improvements in the infrastructure necessary to get the speeds up. The Bill still sits in his committee.

While some isolated areas within the U.S. offer performance that is far above even what the best states in the U.S. can offer, these areas are few and far between. Some residential customers have taken to buying business class service and paying higher prices in an effort to boost performance. Still, the problem is something that needs attention in the U.S., as improvements to the Internet infrastructure are vital for the continued growth in the U.S.

Last modified on 13 August 2008
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