South Korea Has Fastest Internet Speed
Saturday, April 3, 2010, 1:18 AM | 1 Comment
The Internet monitoring firm Akamai has released a report under the title ‘The State of The Internet’ where the internet speed of all countries are listed. South Korea, for a few years now, continues to be the world leader in terms of the average speed of the internet.
The average speed in World leader South Korea (SK) is a whopping 14.58 Mbps, while that of the United States is 3.88 Mbps. Japan with 7.92 Mbps – a little more than half of SK – is second on the list.
The U.S. lags behind in high speed
If you click on the image for enlarged map, you would find that Broadband Internet speeds in the United States are only about one-fourth as fast as those in South Korea, the world leader. Also putting salt on the wounds, U.S. Internet connections are more expensive than those in South Korea as well.
The U.S. lags behind in low price
CNN reports that
The slower connection here in the U.S. costs about $45.50 per month on average, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In South Korea, the much-faster hookup costs $17 per month less. An average broadband bill there runs about $28.50. [It’s like comparing apples and oranges in terms of speed and accordingly the price.]
Reasons why the U.S. lags behind
The breaking of AT&T in 1984, by a Congressional stroke of the pen, immediately created an environment of free and non-monopolistic market, at least that’s what Americans were led to believe at the time.
Media have reported, with some variance, the following reasons for the U.S. lag:
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Competion
Countries with fast, cheap Internet connections tend to have more competition.
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Culture
There are stark cultural differences between hyper-connected Korea and the lagging United States [I don’t for a minute believe that.]
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Open [sharing lines] versus closed networks
There is vigorous debate in the telecommunications world about the role “open networks” have in creating fast, cheap Internet connections.
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Population density
South Korea, with more than 1,200 people per square mile, is a lot denser than the United States, where 88 people live in the same amount of space, and where rural areas and suburbs are large.
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South Korea started out with a Plan
In the 1990s, South Korea set a priority that it would be a highly connected country with a high degree of Internet literacy. The U.S., on the other hand, is still working on the PLAN [I don’t think we will ever see the PLAN].
In a Nutshell
Akamai report says, and I counted 16 countries, that the United States is lagging behind in terms of speed. It is far more expensive than not only South Korea but some other small Asian countries as well. South Korea’s relative openness is one reason the Internet there is so much faster and cheaper than it is in the States.
What do you think?
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One Response to “South Korea Has Fastest Internet Speed”
By veterinary technician on May 6, 2010, 1:50 am | Reply
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!