Tuesday, Jun 26, 2007    Text size: 

The CWA report, which was based on aggregated data from close to 70,000 Internet users, found that the median download speed in the U.S. is 1.9 megabits per second (Mbps), which places significantly behind the estimated median average download speeds in Japan (61 Mbps), South Korea (45 Mbps) and Canada (7 Mbps)

“The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a national policy to promote universal, high-speed Internet access,” said Larry Cohen, president of the CWA. “The grim results of the CWA Speed Test illustrate that, without a national policy, we risk losing our competitive edge in today’s global economy — and the jobs that go with it.”

Scott Rabinowitz, CEO of traffic broker firm TrafficDude.com, told XBIZ that the reasons why the U.S. is falling behind other industrialized nations may have as much to do with corporate caution as a lack of public policy that encourages the spread of broadband access.

“What we’re seeing is the long tail of the ‘Internet bubble’ that burst in the late ‘90s,” Rabinowitz said. “A lot of companies that should be investing in the rollout of broadband are reticent to do so. They were burned so badly by the bubble burst in the ‘90s that they continue to be hesitant now.”

According to the CWA, the government needs to do more to encourage the rollout of broadband. In terms of policies that have already been proposed, the CWA said it has thrown its support behind many of the provisions contained in the Broadband Data Improvement Act, legislation recently introduced in the Senate by Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.

Inouye’s legislation would require “collection and evaluation of data on broadband deployment, an upgraded definition of ‘high speed’ that fits with ever-evolving technology, and grant programs for states and local communities to conduct their own broadband mapping,” according to the CWA.

Cohen said that whatever the private sector’s role, establishment of strong policy should be the first order of business, and that the “first step to informed policy is good data.”

“Sound data will help policymakers establish the affordability of Internet services, identify which communities are being left behind, and determine where to target policy solutions,” Cohen said.

To assist in identifying the areas of greatest concern, the CWA report also ranks individual U.S. states based on their respective median Internet connection speeds. According to the report, the fastest states are Rhode Island (5.011 Mbps), Kansas (4.167 Mbps) and New Jersey (3.68 Mbps), while the most sluggish performance can be found in West Virginia (1.117 Mbps), South Dakota (0.825 Mbps) and Alaska (0. Mbps).

According to the CWA, the same 10-megabyte file that would take 15 seconds to download in Rhode Island would take close to 2½ minutes to download in Alaska. According to Rabinowitz, that lag can be the difference between making a sale and watching a frustrated surfer slip through the cracks.

“Generally speaking, a terrible user experience is not going to lead to tremendous merchant success,” Rabinowitz said.