That's what the most recent study concludes. The U.S. speeds are not very speedy; Hong Kong is 72.49 Mbps, we are 20.77 Mbps. We rank 31st in download times, behind Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Uruguay. In upload times we rank 42nd, behind Lesotho, Belarus and Slovenia.
It looks like the main reason for our low rankings is the lack of true competition among internet providers in this country. They have simply divided markets and merged their way to monopoly, allowing them to charge customers higher and higher prices without the kind of investment in internet infrastructure, especially in next-generation fiber optic connections, that is ongoing in other countries.
It's unlikely things will improve soon as the new head of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, is a former lobbyist for two sets of vested interests: the cell-phone operators and, you guessed it, the cable companies.
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