15 U.S. states with the fastest broadband Internet speeds

   Data courtesy the CWA.

When it comes to Internet speed, the U.S. is still far down the ladder of industrialized nations, ranking 28th behind leaders South Korea, Japan, Sweden and Holland, according to a study by a labor union for telecommunications workers.

Using data gathered from Speed Matters, a site that promotes greater Internet speeds, the Communications Workers of America compiled a list of broadband speeds in U.S. states and territories, and came up with the average speed for the nation -- about 5 megabits per second. That's a quarter of South Korea's 20.4 Mbps, and about a third of Japan's 15.8 Mbps.

The study also pointed to the relatively slow rate at which the average U.S. broadband speed rose in recent years, gaining only about 1.6 Mpbs since May 2007. That was a much slower increase than was seen in the U.S. states with the fastest speeds.

California, perhaps the nation's most high-tech-friendly state, ranked only 11th among the 50 states, well behind the national leaders. Still, the state's 6.6 Mbps average put it ahead of where it was two years ago, when it ranked 22nd among states, with barely more than 3 Mbps.

Delaware residents now enjoy the nation's fastest broadband at 9.9 Mbs, nearly twice the national average -- and up more than 5 Mpbs since 2007. At the lower end of the speed range, sparsely inhabited states such as Idaho, Alaska and Montana were well below the national average, clocking in around 2.5 Mbps.

Among the study's conclusions is that broadband speed is not equitably distributed throughout the country. If the U.S. wants all its citizens to have access to equally high-speed Internet, the CWA argues, it will have to invest heavily in telecommunications infrastructure.

Of course, when the U.S. spends some of the $7.2 billion allocated to broadband development in the federal stimulus package, CWA workers would benefit from job creation.

“Every American should have affordable access to high-speed Internet, no matter where they live. This is essential to economic growth and will help maintain our global competitiveness,” CWA President Larry Cohen said.

The study is not scientific: Some states had far more data points to draw from than others, and in a seemingly arbitrary decision, the study included U.S. territories Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (why not Guam, American Samoa, etc.?) where slow speeds helped to bring down the average.

On the other hand, if you've ever tried to check your e-mail in Montana, you know there's some truth to the figures.

Corrected, 8:23 a.m.:  An earlier version of this post stated that the CWA study gathered data from speedtest.net.  In fact, the survey data was gathered from speedmatters.org; only the international comparison information was taken from speedtest.net.

-- David Sarno

Comments

[Frank]

I am on vacation, but I was unaware that my home state of North Carolina has apparently merged with its neighbor to the south to claim the 43rd spot in the rankings.

Guess I'll need some new address labels...anybody know the postal abbreviation for this new state of "Carolina"?

[john doe]

figures. why the hell is delaware #1 anyway?

[Adrian]

Really? Colorado was not even listed? wow!

[ds_cero]

yea man gotta love nj

[poppe]

Interesting. In California, a lot of the providers have gone to fiber optics. I'm currently running 18 mbps, but I guess not many other people are. With Verizon here, you can get 25 mbps.

[Bill]

In Utah, if you live in Salt Lake City or Provo areas, you can get up to 60/30 fiber. I guess the really crappy DSL service (1.5,0.768 max) everywhere else averages it out to 3.34. Too bad. Also, even though 15/5 fiber is the same price as 1.5 dsl, most people go for the dsl. It's sad.

[MinnesotaMan]

Um, Comcast offers 50 Mbps in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.

[vin]

Even your 'upto 60' fibre connection is nothing compared to South Korea where affordable 1Gb broadband is common.

[SlimmJimmm]

Haha, it feels great to know that I live in Rhode Island.
I mean what's better than living in the smallest state, with the most corrupt government.
Nothing, because we have the second fastest internet, and highest drug use in the nation.
And delaware? Really?

[J]

Delaware is home to a lot of the nations banks and other large industry so it figures it would be #1. Plus the state government has pushed many acts to ensure the telecommunications infrastructure was well maintained and that there was an affordable internet connection for all residents.

[Ducky]

One Word. Guam? 53 States and Prv. Where's 54, Guam?

[Tom in Raleigh]

Guessing fast internet in Del. because of fat data pipes running to banks, corporate attorneys (for creating Del. Corps.), maybe to the Chancery Court? Also, fat pipes between NYC and DC area may help. And the small N of datapoints may skew the count up anyway.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Where ever they got their data for Montana they are WAY off the mark. Funny that in most cases a 15 meg download with 1 meg upload is easily available.

[Tim]

I guess I would pack up and move to DE. No tax, highest broadband speed. Not shabby at all.

[superdit]

I hope my country will follow soon ..... lol

[QuasiPreneur]

But more importantly... forget the dnload speed.. what about upload? At the moment, most don't seem to appreciate the fact you're max'ing out around 128kbits or 256kbits per second??!?

So your 8MB 10megapixel photo will take... 8MB * 8 = 64,000,000 bits / 128,000 bits = 8.3min per photo.. so you want to upload 100 photos... 8mins * 100 = 800mins / 60 = 13 HOURS!??!

not to mention all the video being uploaded.. that is a magnitude larger!

[Emy]

lmao Flordia isn't even on the list ?? Wow.....

[John]

Where do they get these numbers. I have FiOS and I am lucky if I get 2MBps up and 4.5MBps down!!!

[Johny mac]

RI is considered the most technologically advanced state. Not much to expect there when we pay 600% higher taxes then any other US state :(. My parents live in the capital city and their property tax is higher then their mortgage payment. They even tax my car at $79 per thousand and value my car at $19k. tho I can't sell it on the street for $6k an it's 10y old. btw I have 10Mb/2Mb Fios and always hit max.

RI the most corrupt land in the good ol' USA.

[Claire]

I'm curious how, if only the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico (as 52 and 53) were included beyond the 50 States, Montana came in 51st. Did I miss a geography lesson somewhere? Did we add another state to the Union?

[TheFuzz4]

Ok so I've lived in Wyoming the last 4 years and I've had Bresnan for the last 3. I've had 15Mbps download speeds for the last 3 years which I thought was screaming. I've downloaded some things at a rate of 3.0MB per second.

And now I am moving to Colorado and I had to sign up for comcast and btw Colorado is not even on the list which I found suprising because Colorado has had faster speeds than Wyoming. Anyways comcast starting this week in the Denver metro area just upped the 16Mb plan to 22Mb and you can even go all the way up to 50Mb if need be. Thank god for comcast adapting to Docsis 3.0. Although we are a larger country and yes it does take longer to get faster speeds out to those of us that have lived or do live in rural areas I think that we will catch up with the rest of the world one of these days but for now I'm pretty happy with where we are at. Remember 10 years ago when you would die for a ISDN line to your house?

[shrekf]

Im not bragging.. but i think this is above average for most places... And this is off my wireless router too.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/549345421.png

[larry]

For the people who note their state is not on "the list," folks, there is no list here. What is shown are the fastest and slowest states. If you state isn't here, it's somewhere in between.

Geez, do I have to explain everything to you people?

[Allen]

Any chance a journalist will ever take the time to explain why they're always printing these articles about average speeds but always fail to mention that they mean bupkiss in the grand scheme of things?

[Joe Orp]

Please break up these uncompetitive, unproductive, draining and yes, parasitic monopolies. Anti-Trust Law was created for a reason. This 'free market' ideology has put us 15 year behind and counting.

When the private sector can't meet a need, why not let the pubic sector try?