America’s Internet speed triples; still slow compared to the rest of the world

America: the land of the free and the home of the Internet that could use a speed boost.

According to a recently published FCC report, things are at least looking up. In other words, America’s Internet is getting faster, fast.

Since 2011, the U.S. increased its average broadband download speeds from 10 Mbps to 31 Mbps as of September 2014. But compared to other countries, the U.S. is struggling to keep up, according to the FCC. Back in 2013, the U.S. ranked 25^th in download speed, falling behind Canada, Korea, Hong Kong, and western European countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, France, and the U.K. Surprisingly, even with the FCC’s updated numbers, the U.S. would barely make the top 10 if all the other countries remained static.

Akamai’s 2015 report also confirms that America still resides outside of the top 10.

So why is the U.S. slipping so far behind? America’s Internet infrastructure is amazingly complex, but there are two major reasons why the ‘States can’t seem to get a grip: geography and the lack of competition. 

The first reason is quite simple. For example, Luxembourg and South Korea are home to some of the fastest Internet speeds on the planet, and it’s no coincidence that they have some of the smallest amount of ground to cover. In comparison, America is huge, and making a steady infrastructure to bring high-speed broadband to rural and urban areas is a major task to accomplish.

Unfortunately for the U.S., many ISPs don’t make things easy. Many U.S. markets are stymied by companies such as Verizon, who control the pipes for other networks, and also sell access to customers. About 63% of Americans have one high-speed provider to choose from, granting other giants such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable the freedom to upgrade speeds as they please without the fear of losing customers. Toss in the fact that steaming video is becoming the Internet media choice – the FCC predicts it will be 80% of all U.S. traffic in 2019 – and things will really start to crawl.

On the plus side, actual broadband speeds are improving across the board at a steady beat, with Cablevision up front at an average of 60 Mbps.

While the U.S. may not come out on top, its Internet speed is getting better. It’s worth noting that the data on the chart above is from a few months before the FCC upped the broadband minimum for 4 Mbps to 25 Mbps.