New Akamai report shows 5MB+ US broadband in a horrible state

When it comes to determining who has how much in real terms, not marketing terms, content delivery provider Akamai is in a position to know. A new report that is expected to be revised quarterly shows that a paltry 20% of US connections accessing their servers has a =>5MBPS connection. This is very bad news because a great many of the new applications and services now in the pipeline will simply not worl correctly with the majority of the US connections. Talk about killing the economy! Before you bash Mr. Bush by his lonesome, remember that the other party controls both houses of Congress where laws are actually written of repealed. The entire cast of DC Pols are collectively out to lunch.

Akamai data shows that South Korea is the leader in delivering what the Massachusetts-based CDN provider calls, high broadband. It means connections that connect to Akamai’s at speeds exceeding 5 Megabits per second. Nearly 64% of South Korean connections qualify as high broadband.

US, by that metric is a deplorable, with only 20 percent connections qualifying as high broadband. Interestingly, when you reduce the connection speed to 2 megabits per second, US ranks at #24 with 62% of connections at speeds exceeding 2 Mbps.

In US, the state of Delaware has 60% connections that qualify as “high broadband.” California scores rather poorly and is not even among the top ten. Thanks to Cablevision, Verizon and Time Warner, New York comes in at #3 with 36% of its connections at speeds exceeding 5 Mbps. (Gigaom)

Memo to Pols: Make no new laws unless the said laws end the conditions that created the duopoly and continue to protect it from competition. Laws do not make for improvement in service. An open competitive market does.