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US ranked 26th in global Internet speed, South Korea number one

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While I was in Korea from 2008-10, most foreign sites took twice as long to load (including Youtube which took forever), I couldn't access Netflix or Hulu, and most Korean sites were pretty bad (full of Flash that bogged down malware-infested computers running IE6). I couldn't even stream the World Cup properly using various Korean sites. I'll take good content on a 25mbps over crap content on a 250mbps connection any day.
 
I get 90/90 (guaranteed, which is nice) for under 100$ here in Denmark, but you also have to factor in PPP so I'ts probably equivilant to something like 60$ in the US.
 
randomrogue said:
200 Mbps is out in Europe and South Korea. What are you using in the states?
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Ordered 30mb, they upped it to 40mb, but it has recently been scoring at 60mb. Previously was stuck with ATT at 6mb. Dumping them for charter cable was the best decision ever.
 
Eos said:
Cue the (tired) arguments on both sides.

AND GO.
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This. Although I did chuckle a bit at the first GIF posted. Also, I learned about "real population density" which I did not know was measured. South Korea's is 2988 people per sq. km, USA is 179 people per sq. km, by the way. 😛
 
her209 said:
So what about Russia? They are ahead of the US as well.

http://chartsbin.com/view/2484

EDIT: WTF? Iceland too?
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Density is one number, distribution is another important one. Sure we have a couple huge population dense areas...LA, Chicago, NY, ect we also have thousands of miles spread out between them.

Russia has a huge portion of their population clumped in the western part of the country near the rest of Europe. Iceland has almost everyone live in one tiny little spec:
http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/maps/isldens.pdf

Then you have the whole apartment thing vs. stand alone house issue.
 
Last edited:
No competition what do you expect ? In places like South Korea the state owns the pipes and allows companies to sell their service over them. Instead of 1 or 2 choices , you can have 25 . Until the last mile is a utility , nothing will change .
 
CptObvious said:
While I was in Korea from 2008-10, most foreign sites took twice as long to load (including Youtube which took forever), I couldn't access Netflix or Hulu, and most Korean sites were pretty bad (full of Flash that bogged down malware-infested computers running IE6). I couldn't even stream the World Cup properly using various Korean sites. I'll take good content on a 25mbps over crap content on a 250mbps connection any day.
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their internal speed is ok. it's the international pipe that is being saturated 😎
 
vi edit said:
Density is one number, distribution is another important one. Sure we have a couple huge population dense areas...LA, Chicago, NY, ect we also have thousands of miles spread out between them.

Russia has a huge portion of their population clumped in the western part of the country near the rest of Europe. Iceland has almost everyone live in one tiny little spec:
http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/maps/isldens.pdf

Then you have the whole apartment thing vs. stand alone house issue.
Click to expand...

Don't most Americans live along the coast? Similarly, a huge majority of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US boarder. When you take that into account, population density is quite high.
 
Modelworks said:
No competition what do you expect ? In places like South Korea the state owns the pipes and allows companies to sell their service over them. Instead of 1 or 2 choices , you can have 25 . Until the last mile is a utility , nothing will change .
Click to expand...
I'm inclined to agree with you but I believe the UK does this and they are behind us in the ranking.
 
ShawnD1 said:
Don't most Americans live along the coast? Similarly, a huge majority of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US boarder. When you take that into account, population density is quite high.
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There's 4000 miles of border between the US and Canada. 4000 x 100 = 400,000.

34,000,000 / 400,000 = 85 pp/sq mile

South Korea is 48,000,000 people in 39,000 sq miles. That's a density of 1230 people per sq mile.

Totally the same!
 
Anubis said:
the pop density is a real issue but there really is no good reason why our major metro areas cant match what other countries are getting for speeds
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The demographics of American metro areas are very different from other developed nations. Many of the people living in the denser areas of the city are poor and can't afford high-speed access. The wealthier people tend to live in the suburbs or outlying areas of the city, where the population density isn't as high.

Certain metro areas in America are competitive. I live in one of the wealthier areas of the Inland Empire metro area in California, and I have access to Verizon Fios with speeds up to 150Mb/s.
 
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