August 15, 2008

CWA Ranks State-by-State Internet Speeds

The Communications Workers of America Speed Matters blog published a state-by-state report on download speeds this week, with Rhode Island (6.8 Mbps), Delaware (6.7 Mbps) and New Jersey (5.8 Mbps) taking the top three spots.

The results are based on 229,000 broadband speed tests taken from May 2007 to May 2008. The median download speed for the United States was 2.3 Mbps.

Last year’s report prepared by the AFL-CIO-backed CWA pegged the national median download speed at nearly 2 Mbps. The 2007 report drew from data generated by 80,000 speed tests.

For its speed tests, the CWA uses the Network Diagnostic Tool of Internet2, discussed in this case study.

Using data from the Washington D.C.-based Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, the CWA pointed to these countries with faster median download speeds: Japan (63 Mbps), South Korea (49 Mbps), Finland (21 Mbps), France (17 Mbps) and Canada (7.6 Mbps).

Taking positions four through ten in this report are the following states: Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, Florida, Maryland, Georgia and Washington.

The slowest speeds came from tests run in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and Alaska.

These speeds are a composite from multiple in-state service providers. In a statement, the CWA said that it “would be great to know the difference between the actual download speeds of Verizon Communications, AT&T and Comcast.”

The CWA advocates the passage of the Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492) to force the FCC to improve the collection of data on high-speed Internet services.

—Jonathan Tombes