What do South Koreans, Romanians, and the Swiss all have in common? On average, they enjoy faster Internet connection speeds than Americans, according to the quarterly "State of the Internet Report" issued by Akamai, a technology company in Cambridge, Mass., that sells fast data delivery to businesses and other enterprises that put content online. The company looked through its data for an average connection speed throughout the United States and found it to be 3.9 megabits per second, the 18th highest among all countries -- meaning that it is well behind first place South Korea, with 14.6 megabits per second. Not only does South Korea have a high average connection speed, it also has a high number of very fast connections: Seventy-four percent of the country's connections are more than 5 megabits per second, a speed that Akamai calls "high broadband." Only 24 percent of U.S. connections qualify as high broadband.

Many of the countries that rank higher than the United States have invested significant government funds in building up broadband infrastructure. The United States, on the other hand, has pursued a more "free-market approach," which, according to David Belson, director of market intelligence at Akamai, works to both its advantage and detriment in terms of speed of connections. The advantages are that many heavily populated places in the country have multiple providers and that competition works to bring down prices and improve service.

The drawback? If you're outside those areas of high population density, private service providers might not find it worth their time to sell you a fast connection. In more rural areas, "they don't have as much incentive to invest. Many places are hard to reach with fiber," says Belson.

Based on that logic, one might think that the largest, densest cities in the United States are the places with the fastest connections. But that's not the case, according to Akamai. The most recent report is the first "State of the Internet Report" to have city-level data on the speed of connections. Here are the top 10 American cities Akamai lists as "high broadband" and the percentage of connections over 5 megabits per second in those cities:

1. Iowa City, Iowa 92 percent

2. Storrs Mansfield, Conn. 89 percent

3. Kingston, R.I. 88 percent

4. Norman, Okla. 87 percent

5. Clemson, S.C. 87 percent

6. Hanover, N.H. 86 percent

7. Logan, Utah 85 percent

8. Chapel Hill, N.C. 84 percent

9. Newark, Del. 83 percent

10. Henderson, Nev. 81 percent

It's no coincidence that most of these cities are strongly associated with a college or university, such as the University of Rhode Island for Kingston or the University of North Carolina for Chapel Hill. Academic networks tend to be very fast and also are heavily used by the students who get free access, explains Belson. Larger college towns, like Ann Arbor, Mich., or Columbus, Ohio, don't show up on the list because they have a larger number of people not using the college network.

While a strong university presence clearly has a large effect, it is not the only factor that makes some cities have faster connections than others. Here is the list of U.S. cities with the highest average connection speeds:

1. Sandy, Utah

2. Iowa City, Iowa

3. Norman, Okla.

4. Logan, Utah

5. Clemson, S.C.

6. Charlottesville, Va.

7. Spanish Fork, Utah

8. Storrs Mansfield, Conn.

9. Gorham, Maine

10. Kingston, R.I.

While many of the college towns from the previous list show up here, there is also Spanish Fork, Utah, which is not a college town. The city government of Spanish Fork owns and operates its own cable and Internet provider, the Spanish Fork Community Network. Belson says such municipal broadband networks, "in some cases, can certainly lead to higher speeds," particularly if the presence of such a network encourages competition with private providers.

The state of Utah in general has been an innovator in terms of municipal broadband, with 16 cities having banded together in a consortium called UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency) that offers a telecommunications fiber network to citizens.

While proximity to a university and municipal innovation might help a city boost its connection speed, population density is still an important factor. Akamai also has data at the state level. The states with the highest average connection speeds are:

1. Delaware

2. New Hampshire

3. Massachusetts

4. Vermont

5. Rhode Island

6. New York

7. Connecticut

8. District of Columbia

9. Maine

10. Utah

Northeast states dominate the list, and Belson says that might be because these states generally fit more people into less space. The Northeast also has more metro areas than other parts of the country. "The closer you are to a large city increases the chances you'll have one or more selections," Belson says. So if you're not a college student, the denser and more urban parts of the country are generally where you're likely to have the fastest time surfing the Web.

 

 

Employers Should Be Honest About Their Electronic Privacy Policies
Lewis Maltby

Quon v. Arch Wireless raises the question of whether public employers must be honest with employees about their monitoring practices. The case is not about whether employers should be allowed to monitor employee communications. Employers have legitimate reasons to do so. What Quon says is that an employer must be upfront and consistent in its monitoring policies

Employers Must Be Able to Monitor Electronic Devices They Pay For
Mitch Danzig

Employers provide workers with devices and give them access to E-mail, the Internet, and instant messaging to make them more efficient as employees. It defies logic to say that employees should be able to send personal messages on company time and property without being subject to employer review. The U.S. Supreme Court will address Quon v. Arch Wireless this term and should send a clear message

5 Ways New Media Are Changing Politics
Mary Kate Cary

The magnitude of technological change over the past 10 years has been astonishing; the next 10 will surely be more so. New social media are already changing the way organizations attract supporters. Plus, Most Americans have a cellphone and access to a computer these days, and many of us have moved to a much more digital existence.

Internet e-Mail Scams Target Job Seekers
Kathy Kristof

The e-mail said it came from CareerBuilder and offered a job opportunity as a 'trading assistant.' Just one hitch: It wasn't an e-mail from CareerBuilder.com and it was not a job. It was part of a cynical scam that's becoming widespread. This scam is just part of an evolving cacophony of employment frauds that prey on the millions of Americans who are out of work.

Apple's iPad: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Ben Baden

Apple has announced its latest -- and what some say -- greatest creation yet. The iPad is the biggest news since the launch of the iPhone. The iPad is going to be aggressively priced so Apple can get as many iPads into as many hands as quickly as possible. Most of the news reported was positive, but there are still some unanswered questions. Here's a look at what the iPad has to offer ...

U.S. & China Trade Barbs After Google's Ultimatum
Alex Kingsbury

What began as a quiet post on Google's official blog has ballooned into a full fledged international tempest, with the U.S. and China trading barbs about the role of the government in regulating the Internet. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday condemned cyber attacks and called for an Internet where all have equal access to knowledge and ideas

Ultimate HDTV HD Television Buying Guide
David LaGesse

We studied the hundreds of HDTV flat-panel television sets that plastered walls at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and have distilled a quick guide to today's key options

What's New in Consumer Technology and Electronics
David LaGesse

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is smaller than in recent years, but it's still where the world takes stock of what's coming in consumer electornics and technology. And obscure acronyms -- the valued shorthand of geekdom -- seem especially prevalent as new tehcnologies roll out. Here are five new technologies and getting a big push this year ...

CES 2010: Peripheral Vision
Kyle Orland, Crispy Gamer

Many video gaming hardware makers were showing off their new wares at CES 2010 in Vegas each year. Here are the most noteworthy of the selection shown at the show earlier this month.

Mobile Tech That Stole the Decade
David LaGesse

If the '90s were the Internet era, maybe the '00s were the mobile decade. Technology packed ever more power into ever smaller devices, putting portable electronics at the leading edge of innovation this decade. With freedom of movement in mind, here are the top tech innovations of 2000-2009 ...

The Biggest Technology Flops of the Decade
David LaGesse

The new millennium was born amid an Internet bubble that soon burst, not a good omen for the technology industry. The sector rallied, however, and continued to produce a remarkable run of new gadgets. But it had more than its share of flops, as well. Here are the 10 biggest debacles of the decade

 

(c) 2010 U.S. News & World Report