Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008    Text size: 

The Communications Workers of America, or CWA, ran the study, which reported that the United States has not improved or deployed enough fast broadband Internet access over the last year.

The report's findings look grim. From 2007 to 2008, the United States only marginally increased the speed at which consumers can upload and download data to and from the Internet.

For perspective, the report finds that the median download speed for the United States to be less than 10 megabits per second. Broadband consumers in Japan, by contrast, can download information at more than 60 megabits per second.

"At this rate, it will take the United States more than 100 years to catch up with current Internet speeds in Japan," the report reads.

The CWA based its report on speed tests run on approximately 230,000 computers. Not surprisingly, speeds in urban areas outstripped those in rural areas. Wyoming placed 48th out of the 50 states in download speed, while Rhode Island boasted the fastest Internet access in the country.

"You are in a place where there are a lot of challenges," Debbie Goldman, representative for the study, said. "The amount of revenue that a company can make in a rural area, the number of customers it can connect - and therefore make money off of – is much lower."

The CWA is a national labor union that represents more than 700,000 workers across the country. The union also has ties with the AFL-CIO, the Canadian Labour Congress, and Union Network International.

The CWA has established a homepage for this study at SpeedMatters.org. The full report is available in an interactive form online.