Two-thirds of Americans surf the Web at less than 10Mbps

HerrKaLeun · 30 Jan 2014

strollin said:

I surf at less than 10Mbps (my service is rated 4up/4down) because it is the fastest available where I live. It isn't cheap either, $138 month. I work from home and I don't have any problems doing my work, accessing remote servers in other states or even other countries. I only recently got upgraded to 4Mbps, used to have only a 1.5Mbps connection.

This mus be a commercial connection judging by upload. Typically residential access has low upload (but higher download) at much lower cost. Not sure if your work requires you to have that much upload, but you pay a lot to have it.

U-verse (which is over the phone, like and advanced DSL if you will) starts at 12 MBs, I think. I have that and actually have that rate constantly (~12.4 measured), it is really great. teh issue is distance to the nearest fiber point. If you live in rural area, you likley don't have that nearby. If you live closer, it cna get you up to 50 MBs or so.

Not sure about all that cable stuff, they always advertise it woudl be fast. But everyoen I know who has cable always doesn't have internet or it is super slow most of the time. My U-verse may only have 12, but i have it 100% of the time.

strollin · 31 Jan 2014

No, it's not a special commercial account and I don't need the faster upload or pay a premium for it. I am fortunate though that my employer pays the $138 monthly cost, otherwise I couldn't justify paying that much. There is no cable or DSL available where I live so these guys can charge accordingly since there's no competition.

M1GU31 · 31 Jan 2014

I suppose i'm luckier then most but really hate it because I use services like steam were I have to download my games when I buy them and the downloads are super slow, takes hours :| . Wish I had my aunts speed though she lives in town and gets 19Mbps down and 2 up . Downloads are so fast there compared to mine hehe. For youtube and netflix it's fine , just when I have to download my games from steam that bothers me, also that 150gb bandwidth cap doesn't make it any better and get the kick since ppl who can have u-verse get a 250gb cap which I find unfair. With most games being like 8gbs or larger these days. Largest game I have is about 28gbs, most are like around 9-10 so you can see why I would have a fit over the wait and the cap.

Computer0304 · 01 Feb 2014

A Guy said:

Despite Internet speed improvements in nearly every state, most US residents are still surfing the Web at less than 10Mbps, according to Akamai's latest State of the Internet Report.

Drawing data from Akamai's globally distributed network of servers, the report covering Q3 2013 put the US in 9th place worldwide in the proportion of residents with "high broadband," or at least 10Mbps average download speeds:

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A Guy

Well I guess it is good to know that I will most likely have a faster speed in Korea when I move there even though my speed is already 40/25 i think.

carwiz · 01 Feb 2014

There was an article in the paper this morning about the soon to be arriving UHDTV and Netflicks' service for streaming movies. It said that a connection with a minimum of 15Mbs would be needed while standard HDTV requires 7MBs. Cripes, I have a hard enough time watching YouTube without an occasional pause.

King Arthur · 01 Feb 2014

That's the cost of trying to stream 720p/1080p ("HD") content, let alone "4K" content ("UHD", or "Ultra HD" from what I understand) that is actually 3840x2160 resolution which is 4x as big as 1080p which is 1920x1080 resolution.

Incidentally, the "4K" moniker is stupid. It artificially inflates the "resolution" of the video by switching from measuring vertical height as was the case with 720p/1080p to measuring horizontal width. Going by prior standards, 4K content is actually 2160p.

whs · 01 Feb 2014

The problem in the US is that decent high speed service is very expensive. In Germany where I live half of the year I pay appr. $20 for DSL 6000. In the US I pay $37 for DSL3000. That is about twice as much for half of the speed. No wonder people stay on the low cost sevices.

ShamrockRig · 01 Feb 2014

$138?:O Lucky if we pay £30..
We get 18mb unlimited from sky but when downloading files the fastest ive seen is 1.5mbps

Slartybart · 01 Feb 2014

Yeah, but we CRUSHED Denmark!

strollin · 01 Feb 2014

Devlin1888 said:

$138?:O Lucky if we pay £30..
We get 18mb unlimited from sky but when downloading files the fastest ive seen is 1.5mbps

$138 is what my company pays now for my 4up/4down service, at one time they were paying $159 for 1.5up/1.5 down.