Overall, U.S. broadband speeds place a dismal 14th among the country's international peers, but broken down by state and district, a rosier picture emerges. In fact, Washington, D.C., has the third-highest speed in the world, behind only one other city, Hong Kong, and one country, South Korea.
A new report from The Connectivist, an online magazine created in partnership with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, shows that D.C. plus 9 U.S. states capture 10 of the top 15 broadband speed rankings worldwide.
But is city-versus-country a fair way to make the comparison? Clearly that's a horn the cable industry would like to toot. But The Connectivist makes a case for why comparing the United States as a whole to smaller countries with far denser populations is misleading.
"Highly rated countries like South Korea , Japan, Latvia and Switzerland have more in common geographically with U.S. states than they do with the United States as a whole," Sam Friedman, a spokesperson for the publication, said.
The Connectivist used data from Akamai, a cloud service that handles as much as 30 percent of all Internet traffic, to determine the figures. (You can find top speeds for your own state on Akamai's interactive map.)
So if you're unhappy with broadband service in your area, maybe check out real estate in New Hampshire, Vermont or Utah.
Infographic courtesy of The Connectivist.
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