A perennial issue confronting the industry is determining the actual "speed" of broadband services. I put the word speed in quotes because, of course, we always express broadband in terms of capacity, not speed. Many believe that this is the same thing, but it's not. Overlooking this nit, it is a good time to look at the state of broadband, in terms of the "speed" experienced by end users. This is partly because government dump trucks are getting ready to haul $7.2 billion out to shovel-ready broadband projects, but also because the good people at Akamai have recently released their quarterly The State of the Internet, a rich trove of information concerning internet usage around the world.
One portion of the Akamai report that has been widely quoted in the mainstream media covers broadband speeds. The Q4/2008 report, for the first time, ranks countries by average speed: tiny, dense South Korea (surprise) is #1 at 15 Mbps, the US ranks 17th at 3.9 Mps (others of note include Japan at 7 Mbps, Canada at 3.8 Mbps, Germany at 3.8 Mbps, France at 3.2 Mbps, India at 0.8 Mbps China at 0.8 Mbps, and Syria at a blistering 0.3 Kbps). All interesting data and useful fodder for activist governments wanting to spend taxpayer money to fix things.
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