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The CWA Speed Matters Results Are In |
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Thursday, 28 June 2007 |
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You helped to spotlight just how far the U.S. lags behind in high-speed speed Internet, and you can help push lawmakers to start turning the situation around with a new bill in the U.S. Senate.
More than 80,000 of you have taken the Speed Matters Speed Test, and now we've compiled the results into a new, state-by-state report on Internet speeds. This first-ever report paints a bleak picture - the United States has fallen behind our international competitors in access to affordable high speed internet.
This week we’re delivering the Speed Test report to every member of Congress. Will you take a moment to call your Senators’ offices? Ask them to look out for the report, and urge them to support the Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492) - a new bill that will help us catch up to our international competitors.
When the receptionist picks up, ask to speak to the staff member responsible for telecommunications. When that person answers (or if you get a voice mail) you can say something along these lines:
"Hi my name is ________________. This week the Communications Workers of America released a state-by-state report on U.S. Internet connection speed. The report was delivered to your office. It shows that the United States is lagging behind our international competitors when it comes to high speed Internet access and has data specific to connection speed in our state. I urge you and (NAME OF SENATOR) to take a careful look at the report, and to support S.1492, the Broadband Data Improvement Act, as a first step to affordable high-speed Internet for America."
The report showed a national median download speed of a sluggish 1.9 megabits per second (mbps). Compare that to median speeds of 61 mbps in Japan, 45 mbps in South Korea, and 17 mbps in France, and it's clear that the U.S. is falling far behind. Median upload speed in the U.S. was an exceedingly slow 371 kilobits per second.
The true picture of U.S. Internet speed is actually more dismal than our report demonstrates. Less than 5 percent of participants in this survey used dial-up connections, whereas some 30 to 40 percent of Americans still use dial-up.
We launched the report on Monday, and several news outlets including USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, and MSNBC have picked up the story.
Click the link below to check out our new report and see how far the United States has fallen behind. You can also use our interactive map to see how the average connection speeds in your state, county and zip code measure up:
http://www.speedmatters.org/challenge/state.html
We need affordable high-speed Internet for America. But many Americans – especially those in rural regions and low-income households – completely miss out on the benefits of high speed internet. Most U.S. Internet connections today are not fast enough to permit interactive home-based medical monitoring, multi-media distance learning, or to send and receive data to run a home-based business.
The Speed Matters campaign is dedicated to making sure everyone has access to the high speed Internet connections that are so essential in the 21st century. The grim results of the CWA Speed Test illustrate that, without a national policy, we risk losing our competitive edge in today’s global economy – and the jobs that go with it.
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