Surprise, surprise: U.S. broadband is slow. Really slow.

A file that takes four minutes to download in South Korea would take nearly an hour and a half to download in the U.S. using the average bandwidth. Japanese users leaves U.S. users behind with an eye-popping 63.60 Mb/s download link. This means that Japanese can download an entire movie in just two minutes, as opposed to two hours or more here in the U.S. Just in case you are wondering: No, Japanese users do not pay more for their broadband connections. In fact, U.S. broadband cost is among the highest in the world.

Japan dominates international broadband speed with a median download speed of approximately 63 Mb/s, more than enough to stream DVD-quality video with surround audio in real time. Next on the list is South Korea where download speeds achieve an average of 49.50 Mb/s. Finland and France follow with 21.70 Mb/s and 17.60 Mb/s, respectively. Canada ranked eighth with an average download speed of 7.60 Mb/s. The U.S. came in 15th with 2.35 Mb/s.

[TitanUp]

yeah i have the highest speed broadband available in my area and it takes me about 3 hours to download a movie.

im not saying in the usa or state im meaning the country i live in scott county tn broadband speeds are crappy here we need a better service

[UnSelf]

reason number 38 im moving to Japan

[zo6_lover27]

What are the other 37 reasons?

I'll guess one of them, no fat chicks? ;)

[midgetsanx]

Its Fish Heaven in Japan. xD

[UnSelf]

1. Personal love for Eastern culture
2. Where Japanese animation studios are prevelant
3. DBZ aficianado
4. Fav language
5. Love their food
6. BUllet trains
7. kooky shows
8. bombed the US
9. took an atom bomb
10. took another
11. Kojimas from there
..
..
...
.....
.....
.....
37. no fat chicks
38. Fastest internet speed in the world

[Will_Smith]

wow Bubbles is a huge Weaboo... i love every culture on earth for different reasons, but to go as far and say "8. bombed the US" is pretty ignorant when they took the worlds only atom bomb up the a$$

to love a culture is one thing, but this kid goes as far as to think its better this his own... sad

http://www.encyclopediadram...

[UnSelf]

hey will smith, 1st: calm down and 2ndly read CAREFULLY:

im giving Japan points for TAKING a bomb and surviving it and still had pride enough to admit defeat and establish a well bonded friendship wit the US still to dis day.

3rdly: Who said i LOVE Japan more than anywhere for that matter? i simply stated why i want to live their. Calm down u overzealous patriotic movie star n4g user....its jus a site

[Will_Smith]

what exactly does "taking a bomb and surviving it" mean?? it was a war, they had no choice but to survive it... by surrendering of course.

i realize this is N4G, but im allowed my rebuttals right.

[strotee]

Japan took 2 atom bombs: Hiroshima & Nagasaki

[morganfell]

Will, you need to loosen the belt and tie. It is affecting your ability to have a sense of humor.

[shysun]

Will Smith, I think you have a big stick where the sun doesn't shine....maybe you should pull it out! ;)

[Syronicus]

If you think it was the atom bomb that persuaded the Japanese to stop fighting then you need to study up a bit more on the war. Imagine their emperor as being seen as a god and that a full surrender would be surrendering over their god to a pagan country... Until the terms of surrender took out the full surrender of their "god", the war was not at an end.

Anywho, saying you like a country for bombing another is pretty sad. Bombing any country for that matter is bad if it in fact results in the deaths of innocent lives. Saying you approve of this is sad.

[JsonHenry]

Yeah, our service sucks compared to smaller countries. But I doubt they would be at the speeds they are at if they had to run the millions of extra miles of lines for a country the size of the USA.

I can only hope that one day soon we will catch up though. I have an 8meg line and it is the highest available in my area.

[Si-Pie]

Well I thought we had it slow here in the uk.

[Pr3-M3d_G4M3R]

That's BS for Canada, right now and at any given time I'm at 100Mbps not 7Mbps, guess it depends how much you wanna spend. Full movies take me about an hour and 5gigs take about 7hours. I dont get it..

[Blood_Spiller]

Your internal network may be 100MBps but I can guarantee you that your connection to the world isn't at that, you more or less confirmed my belief when you said it takes you 7 hours to download a mere 5GB.

[CommonSense]

this group of comments has drifted way off track. so i'll put it back on.

The US and some of western europe have much older infrastructures. we based ours on copper. that's how we pulled ahead of so many other countries for so many years. unfortunately, when they decided to get caught up, they built their infrastructures using fiber optics because the technology was available.

assuming this country's economy doesn't completely collapse in the next decade, we'll see more and more cities slowly rebuilding their infrastructure with fiber optics. but since the country is so big, it is going to be a very slow process.

and just to drift off topic, or in this case back on topic. i think everyone is misunderstanding what 'will smith' said. and i think this bubbles guy forgot his own words. he said his number 8 reason for wanting to move to japan is that they bombed the US NOT because we bombed them. that was 9 and 10. and i'll always say the use of nuclear weapons is WRONG. but they did attack us first and for you to say that's a reason you want to move there does sound just a li'l off. do you hate the US so much that you think they deserved to be bombed during a time when the american people wanted nothing to do with war? I'm not at all happy with the direction this country is taking, the government is as corrupt or more corrupt than ever. but to say you like a country because they killed innocent people...not to mention those innocent people were your countrymen. i'm just at a loss for words that a person can say this and then so many people are defending him. i think a lot of people need to get over this man-made, political border crap. these are just countries, we're all still people. i admire a lot of other cultures, and i think it's great that this guy does too; but the attitude just seems wrong. appreciate them for the great things they've accomplished, not cuz they bombed us.

if you read all this, thank you. if you do or don't like what i have to say, feel free to PM me and we can talk about it.

[DJ]

Guess not. o_o

[poindat]

Holy sh*t, and I thought I had a fast connection. Damn, a movie in two minutes? If one of my friends told me that I wouldn't have believed them because I didn't think it was possible.

Why should we have to pay the same price as Japanese or Korean users when their speeds are over 16x faster than ours?

[thewhoopimen]

The US is so behind its not even funny. South Korea had 20mbit connections 8 years ago.

[zagibu]

You don't have to pay them, but as long as you do, why should they change anything? Paying customers means happy customers in economy.

[kinggeoff]

exactly why the economy is booming worldwide right?

[bootsielon]

It is 1 Gbps for about 60 bucks a month.

[TheIneffableBob]

The problem is the size of the country and how spread out people are. It's difficult to lay down a fast infrastructure across the United States compared to, say, Japan. Japan's people are coupled close together, making it easy to wire everybody up to the Internet with ridiculously fast speeds.

[UnSelf]

ill have to disagree wit that but i wont click the disagree button. I dont think it has anything to do wit how coupled together the ppl in Japan are.

What may make more sense perhaps is the sheer number of ppl in our country using internet when compared to Japans.

US= about 200 million ppl using internet

Japans= about a fraction of that

[zo6_lover27]

Japan has a population of about 130 million people, so its not much less than the US, which is about 300 million people.

Also, anybody know the speeds for China? If what your saying is true, with a population of 1.3 billion people, China would have the slowest internet in the world.

EDIT

I just found out that Japan has the third largest population of broadband/fast access internet users, behind US in second and China in First.

BTW, so much for your name Bubbles. :D

http://www.guardian.co.uk/m...
http://news.theage.com.au/t...

[UnSelf]

thats a good point. Found out so my theory can be rectified.

:( what happened to my 6th bubble?

[Lyan]

It has more to do with optical connections to residence AND networking than it does size of the country. Yes it is easier to lay new infrastructure in a smaller area like Japan or Korea, but the real difference is in the fact that most if not all households with broadband connections have optical connections directly to their house in those countries. The US optical network is huge and is already in place within many major hubs and even to most hubs that connect a community or suburban area, but that is where it stops. Cable companies are lobbying for significant tax breaks and funding to get the government to pay for creating household optical networks. Why pay for it themselves when they can get someone else to front the bill and make money off of them. Kinda ridiculous.

The bottle neck is more due to outdated networking connection hardware connected to individual households.

[lsujester]

True. As long as companies can make money without doing any actual work, things will never change. So if the government has to give them money so that they won't actually have to pay for that work, then I guess that's how it has to be. Makes me love free enterprise, that does.

Also brings up the whole "DD is the future!" rhetoric that has been floating around. Good looking moving to DD for everything when a huge portion of your user base suffers from crappy download speeds.

[Bnet343]

Japan is like the size of California, of course they have faster speeds.

[FFXNo1]

HAHAHHAHAHAHAhahahahah, that was funny. Have you ever heard of something called, "optic fiber"????? The amount of information that can travel to optic fiber is amazing. I don't remember if it's do to the low band gap of the material (can someone correct me if i'm wrong).

[Gam71]

Then shouldn't california have similar speeds as japan?

the size of a country shouldn't hinder it. It's not like the entire country is getting all its internet from one lonely server?

on a side note, where did the uk come in this.

[TheIneffableBob]

The difference is that the population in Japan is very dense and coupled together. A large majority of the people live in the major metropolitan areas, whereas people in California are spread out all over the state.

[Gam71]

I understand that not a of california should get top speeds but some parts should.

Isn't hollywood there? (i hope it is and not L.A.) The main buisness and residential areas of a place like california should be getting a top or at least above average service.

For instance i live in a run down coastal, dying a cancerous death due to it's local inbred population (had to move here, hate the sodding place) and I get 15Mb for a tenner.
My friend lives out in the sticks near London and just got 2Mb for £20.
Certain parts should be beating the national average.

[SpiderBoy36]

2 minutes for a movie? That is ridiculous, I would love that!

I have a TERRIBLE connection...

6 MB's a minute isn't the coolest thing in the world...what is that, 100 KB's a second? Ugh.

[jaja1434]

Well 6MB/s is 6144 kilobytes/s but I'm going to assume you mean 6 Mb which is 768 Kb/s.

6MB = 6 MegaBYTES

6Mb = 6 MegaBITES

[Lumbo]

Megabits, it does not bite ;)
1 byte = 8 bit
1 MB (Megabyte) = 8 Mb (Megabit)

6Mbyte/ minute = 0.8 Mbit/sec

that is still ... broadband .. somewhat ..

[leeger]

my dl speed is only up to 1mbps. Wish we have those kind of speed here.

[zo6_lover27]

I have the highest speed available in my area and its only 1.5mb/s

But its still a hell of a lot faster than dial up, which until a year ago was the ONLY thing I could get.

[DA_SHREDDER]

Also, I got 10 mbps internet connection,, and I still get lag online.

[DJ]

Minimum DSL requirements should be 1.5 Mbps. =/

[zagibu]

Lag has to do with response times and not bandwidth. For many games, a double-channel ISDN dial-up connection is better than DSL, because it has better response times and the tiny bandwidth doesn't matter in many games. But of course, it's terrible for downloading stuff.

I live in a european country, where we have the problem that the last mile from the house to the first network hub is still an ancient copper wire. And because a traditional formerly state-owned company has still a quasi-monopoly on these connections, nothing changes. I'm not too unhappy with my 4000/600 Kb/s line, though.

[TitanUp]

z06 same as my connection i wish we had 1gb for 60 a month that would be awesome.

[Freakwave003]

It's fast enough to change pages and stream most sites, but when it comes to actually downloading stuff, it's not great.

[OOG]

Up here in Canada it seems to be getting faster and faster....im kinda screwed where I live because I live only like 10 mins away from where the good internet ends but it will be here soon enough and that is running at 15mbs down and and at least 1mb upload and usually much higher.....and this is at a reasonable price as well

[Ozzyb]

and she has a content limit on her internet. I don't know the exact number, but it's a certain amount of GBs per month and if you exceed that you have to pay per certain amount (MB or GB I dunno). I thought that that was ludicrous in this day and age, so I looked at some sites for one that doesn't have any restrictions, but couldn't find any. Is it like this everywhere in Canada? She lives in Toronto.

[Raptors]

You're right. I live in Toronto and my service provider is Rogers. Depending on what package you have you have a certain limit. For example, for regular highspeed your limit is 20 or 30gb or something like that. I have the extreme highspeed package so I have up to 90GB.

[Blood_Spiller]

Maybe that's an Eastern Canada thing but over here in the west (Calgary) Shaw does have a cap but its something stupid like 80GB/month but they don't charge you if you go over, I tested it and downloaded 100GB back in February and didn't get charged a dime more.

[Aclay]

Japan is literally ahead of the entire world when it comes to technology and it comes to no surprise that they have faster Broadband...Japan even has those Bullet Trains that leave the U.S. Amtrak Trains behind in the dust... being able to download an entire movie in 2 minutes would be nice though... lucky Japanese, they get all the newest tech. before anyone else.

[rockleex]

But only because their companies care about innovation and offering the best service for the best price.

In America its more about offering the least for the highest price. The work ethic in America is also about instant gratification. They don't understand that if they spend $500 million now to change their technology, they can make 10 times more profit in the next 5 years.

The Xbox360 reflects America's work ethic. Rush out inferior hardware to gain a headstart, charge for services that should be free, etc.

[games4fun]

the reason why i like my college connection 100mb possible :) but they cap it at around 1-3mb :(

[macalatus]

Wow...a decade ago 56.6KB was the "fastest" thing you can get. Now it's like 70mb per sec. and this country has like 7.0mb per sec.

[OOG]

yea it doesnt seem like it was that long ago that people were downloading a song in 20 mins lol

[pwnsause]

and thats why Digital Distribution is very far off, say 10 years. sure 1 can download a 9gb file in 5 hours, but its not enough, not up to standards. once everyone all over the world upgrades to fiber optics, and gets cheap, then i can say we can now embrace DD.

[AlterEgo]

This is true.

Broadband DSL used to be fast.

I think the ISP's slow speed over the years to make you pay "extra" for their 'upgraded' speed...which was what you had at the beginning...

[Epotheros]

This is weird. Right now my laptop which is running off of wireless is running at 54.0 Mbps. If I hard wire it my internet runs at 100 Mbps. I wonder if it is because I live near Denver which is an advanced city, but doesn't have a dense population.

[OOG]

lol....k not even gonna make fun of ya... lol

Its because thats the speed your wireless is connected at....not you internet...your wireless can send a speed that high and most direct connection are 100mbps.....hell my router connections are 1000mbps.....lol but thats not your internet connection just the speed your router is connecting to your system....kinda lkie the max speed it can send info at etc......great for sending files to other systems connected to the same router......

[Premonition]

No thats the routers speed, as for your ISP thats a different story.

[Premonition]

US got some explaining to do, and boy would online games be so much better at these speeds, I wonder if the next president will do something about this.

[xplosneer]

But I think he(they) have other things on his(their) mind(s). Hey, a few years down? Sure :D

[lsujester]

I'm sure McCain could fix it. He's "aware" of the internet. LMAO

[darkshiz]

Isn't McCain opposed to Net Neutrality?

Without Net Neutrality the ISP can cap for download/upload speeds for curtain websites and P2P connections and could enforce your whole internet experience that you once had freedom in.

[Lets-Game]

i pay 100bucks for 24mb connection and i only allowed to download 60 gig a month.

fack that, i so wanna leave this crap county of ours called belgium, stupid village in the middle of europe.

[Bathyj]

The beer and chicks are good but, right?

[DARK-GRIM]

I pay 130bucks for 2mb connection
f*ck that
I wanna leave in your county.

[psycho360]

60GB cap? That wouldn't last 10 days man.

[Carbide7]

I get 23mb/s download here
http://www.speedtest.net/re...

[ICUP]

That's alot of pornz. :o

[fezthabest]

Its funny cause right now my internet is acting stupid. I usually get around 9.4Mbps download speed and 540 kbps upload speed but damn today I'm getting like 1.1-3.3Mbps download speed and 300 kbps upload speed. Yes i do live in Canada and have cogeco(woo!) But damn it would be so great to have Japanese speeds, even half would be great

[vdesai]

I can already download my movies in 10 minutes im happy with that. (But I could be happier ;) )

[Bathyj]

My speed is 1.5mps but in reality the quickest anything ever downloads is about 150 Kps so its about 10 times slower than its full potenial.

If they actually sit on downloads at that speed, then OMG, no wonder you slow bastards keep crashing Konami's servers. We're lucky they bother with us at all.

Oh well, at least my penis is bigger. ;)

[coasterfreak1029]

Actually, ISPs advertise their internet connections in Megabits per second.(8bits = 1byte) So you should be getting around 180 kilobytes per second which is really not that much off of what you're supposed to be getting.

[AcidHorse]

In countries like Japan, the government keeps a watchful eye on companies to insure that they do not harm the economy. They force companies to deal with other businesses and individuals fairly. In the USA, companies can impose broadband limitations and cause a spike in fees to the consumer. Since broadband, like wind or solar power, is virtually limitless (never runs out) companies find ways to justify high prices. Telecom companies limit broadband to artifically increase the value of their service.

Since our goverment rather tax, watch, control, and regulate their citizens instead of giant corperations, companies like Time Warner, Microsoft, AT&T and others are allowed to manipulate and rip us off.

For example, in Europe AND Asia, Microsoft was taken to court over their monoply in the PC markets and in both regions Microsoft lossed. That is because Microsoft is a monopoly, the difference in the US is that Microsoft has political influence and lobbiests who insure that Microsoft is protected from a monopoly law suit.

[xplosneer]

I have a story. When the companies in our area were upgrading their service to Optical, our ISP(Charter) said they had already implemented it. THEN WHY THE CRAP AM I NOT SEEING BETTER PRICES/FASTER SPEEDS?! We're still running on a 3MB connection. When we complained, they upgraded us to 5MB for 3 months free. That showed us that it was obviously being limited itself.

[juuken]

Well...that beats the hell out of my connection. O-o

[TheDeadMetalhead]

It's very possible that I have the slowest Lap Top in the States. :*(

I'm moving to Japan, too. Where I will found my own Game Company!

The Name : G.A.M.E Studios

The 1st game : Shenmue 3

Only 8 more years, folks >:)

[juuken]

I am moving with you! ^3^
*tries dragging large suitcase and falls over*

;_;

[TheDeadMetalhead]

???

...*continues to play Megaman X3 wondering how to buy Shenmue from Sega*

Seriously, people! I'm about to beat this game!! I MUST BEAT THIS GAME!!!! O O
O

[juuken]

?????

Why do you never get my jokes?! ;-;

[TheDeadMetalhead]

IDK.

[Ozzyb]

I have Verizon DSL and while it's not terribly slow, I would prefer something faster and within a reasonable price. I live in NJ near NYC, so if anyone lives around here or knows of a good provider around here, would be much appreciated. I wanted Verizon Fios but it's not available here yet (and that's crap because this is not the middle of nowhere).

[tplarkin7]

America invented the internet. The other countries have a newer infrastructure since they build it after us. They learn from our pioneering mistakes. Also, Americans are pretty good at supporting useful technology at the right time. (Although, the right time is now if DLC becomes prominent.)

[AcidHorse]

The automobile was invented in the USA, but today Japan is the number one country in the automotive industry. Japan hold the patent for the most efficient hybrid engine. Ford and GMC are falling apart. They both have laid off thousands of workers and their stockes have tumbled. Both US automotive giants have outsourced most of the US jobs to Mexico and Canada (thanks to NAFTA its become easier). So your logic is proven WRONG.

[jcfilth]

you're wrong kid!! for what I've seen, when it comes to Tech and innovations Japan comes first. Want an example? take a look at the PS3(JPN) and 360(USA). Have you seen those new OLED TVs from Sony? and there's a lot more that many of us would like to have here in the US.
Today I saw an ad in a bus(Q46) here in NYC that said: "Buy American Only Products, Keep More Jobs In The US"(something like that) the problem is, they're not the best <o_0>

[tplarkin7]

The auto industry has its ups and downs. The 80s saw American cars turn to garbage and then they woke up and made American cars better. I don't believe in buying garbage. If Japan makes the best cars, then buy those. Healthy competition is good.

Now, Japan is putting out garbage games and consoles. They are like the American auto industry in the 80s.

[TheCerebralBore]

I from Australia, we have to ride a bikes just to generate electricity to power our PC, consoles, etc........NO WONDER I LAG ON XBOX LIVE. Thou some people are lucky they have wombats that run on treadmills and dam can those little wombats run. Just one can generate electricity for 2 whole homes. I be getting my wombat soon. Dam! I'm lost track of time and late for work, lucky i got me kangaroo to ride to work. They also make bodyguards.

[Ozzyb]

I too would like a kangaroo bodyguard. Let me know how they workout, that would be awesome! lol

[edwineverready]

Got 24mb/s download and 2,5mb/s Upload here in amstedam holland. Fast enough

[Bladestar]

I don't know about you guys... but I'm getting up to 20-25MBits in the US... Optimum online is fast like that. only because Verizon Fios is yet to be available here... I guess when they say, "The U.S. came in 15th with 2.35 Mb/s. " they are talking about average.. because sure as hell is being years since my ISP is that slow...

Also, one does not have to be very smart to see the obvious reasons why Japan have faster internet connection...

A) Demographics - yeah.. duh... Japan is a lot smaller than the US and wiring it is a lot easier...

B) Money... Japan's Army = American Army... not only they don't have to spend a bunch of money for their national security but if one day any country mess with them.. guess who's going to bring the big guns?
Japan can spend all their money on infrastructure, technology, education, etc while the American people and tax payers protect their way of life which gives them the ability to have "faster internet connection"... Japan enjoys one of the biggest benefits any country can have... the ability to have one of the most powerful military and not pay a dime for it...

Just 63.60 Mb? that sucks... they should have time travel by now...

[Kyur4ThePain]

Come on dude.

You and I both know that's not true. We (America) only get involved if there is something to gain.
Why do you think nothing has been done about all the sh!t that's happening in Africa, with hundreds of thousands dying? Because there is absolutely no gain by helping out. No, you can pound your chest as much as you like, but we are the biggest hypocrites in the world.

On Topic:
Just ran a quick Speakeasy test - 6.8Mb/s.

[joeynox]

I live in the Bronx and I got OOL " optimum online " also and its 30/5 for $45 bucks . OOl pwnz

[jaja1434]

@Kyur4ThePain

He's referring to the fact that under the WWII treaty, Japan gave up it's right to have an offensive army(they have can a smaller "defensive" one) and part of this deal is that American has to defend Japan from foreign invasion. Basically attacking Japan would be like attacking the U.S.

[ThaGeNeCySt]

I use Optimum Online... can't remember the speeds but they did raise the speeds without raising the price when Verizon came into town and started laying their FiOS pipelines and going door to door to get new customers

[Bladestar]

@ThaGeNeCySt - thanks for clarification...

@Kyur4ThePain - I agree with you; it's true that America will only become involved in what may seem like their national interest; instead of getting involved on conflicts that America can have no gain... sadly that's reality and all Nations do the same... but the fact as mentioned by ThaGeNeCySt WW2 events made Japan having a huge military a big national security against the US... regardless of motives; japan benefits of not having to spend lots of money in military... we do that... Japan can focus on their infrastructure instead...

Some people even believe that Japan's attacks of pearl harbor was their smarter financial investment... after that; and then the nukes and then the treaties... Japans economy and education has grown without limits...

[Rourker]

I'm from Canada and Nexicom is promising me 4 Mb/s though I rarely ever get over 1. which sucks the big one. but I'm off to college soon so it should be a good 5 - 7 Mb/s there, so that's not all that bad.

[Shadow Man]

Internet providers in the U.S. charges you $30 for a 700kb internet
connection. Compare to Mexico you get a 4mb for $30.
I know this from Experience.

[dkgshiz]

Anywhere you go in rural US. All they have is dailup and satellite. Which is really slow and expensive. Satellite internet costs on average $80-$150 a month! I mean now a days you need internet for just about anything. 3rd world countries are getting better internet than we are! The internet companies really should start to reach out to rural areas for internet options. People are sick of dial up and satellite. The US just needs to get fiber optic cables everywhere. It can be used for anything. Internet, power, phone service. This is only in bigger cities. Its really sad, all our country every thinks about is war. Hopefully when Obama gets elected the US is going to improve the more useful things in life.

[deathray]

Which one would you rather have: great broadband or food. I guess they chose broadband.

Simply ridiculous. MCCAIN FTW!!!!

Also, you can't use fiber optic for power knucklehead.

[VsAssassin]

Well, consider the Philippines for example. I have a 5mbs download speed, with a sure 'green ping' technology. And roughly, I only pay 45 dollars a month. I never thought the united states is catching it's breath when it comes to dsl speed rates.

Well, I guess, technology really is in Asia.

[dro]

off topic ... if u knew one of the darkest and most coverd up part of japan history about what the japanes did u will never want to live there and be part of there way of life.and the most shocking thing is that after the war america found out about it but did not expose it to the world so they could keep the results for them selves.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

that video is just a small part of what went on....unit 731 a.k.a hell on earth!!

[Fanboy Slaughter]

You lose bubbles for the link to that video.

Every country has one atrocity or another to cover up in it's history. Not that it makes what this was any less significant, but nevertheless it's pretty bigoted of you to say that about Japanese culture now, as opposed to almost a century ago, when the entire world OPENLY hated each other.

Not to mention that documentary has zero credibility, what with the scream track playing and the ridiculous horror movie stock footage trying to emphasize the horror of it all. That documentary is very Michael Moore-ish, using unrelated, extreme images to enhance the emotional feedback from the viewer. You should see the kind of hate-mongering going on in the comments of that movie, and it's videos like that that fuel further hatred for a group of people.

[psycho360]

Well i think all countries have done tortures and experimentations on prisoners, political rivals etc at one time or another. So you can't point out japan for this just cause they have documentary out? I have seen footage of prisoners with hands tied up together getting shot point blank and some having their throats cut while they scream like wild animals. Its really sick to see humans could do that to another living being.

BUT back to topic your comment is out of place for this thread and so is mine.

[kevin1112]

http://www.speedtest.net/re...
This is the regular cable i get from comcast, no special offer like speed boost or anything like that. I think im the only one that has cable modem in my internet lol.

[kevin1112]

i meant to say i think im the only one with cable in my neighborhood.

[Fanboy Slaughter]

Speedtest is next to worthless. While it gives you an idea of what your transfer rate is, it doesn't give a consistent average.

Speedtest is designed to test your connection using the fastest means possible of sending something to your computer, and it usually makes you choose a server that's closest to you, despite the fact that most website access is from across the country, or even from another country.

My results as follows:
From Chicago, closest to me: http://www.speedtest.net/re...

From San Francisco, cross-country:
http://www.speedtest.net/re...

From London, UK:
http://www.speedtest.net/re...

And from Australia:
http://www.speedtest.net/re...

[kevin1112]

heres mine from far away,

http://www.speedtest.net/re...

http://www.speedtest.net/re...

http://www.speedtest.net/re...

http://www.speedtest.net/re...

as you can see mine is still pretty good, only time it went very slow was from east coast to new zealand. but thats over 8000 miles.

[morganfell]

Well as long as Microsoft upgrades the entire structure worldwide then they won't have anything to worry about concerning their 'digital downloads are more important that physical media' approach. Particularly with that next console. Good luck with that one Redmond.

[Serjikal_Strike]

Thats why I switched to cable instead!

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

If only those 12-year olds would get off of Facebook.

[Exia]

How are we the number one country in the world in terms of GDP and we have some of the worst bandwidth in the world?

[centrum2k]

yes, totally agreed. i have 1.5mb/sec and i was happy till i read this. can someone tell me why we have like the slowest speed and yet we are the top wealthiest countries in the world!!!

[jtucker78]

It's probably because your country is so large. Think of the infrastructure that the US needs for everyone to have fast broadband.

I get 24Meg in the UK, but we're a small island, so it takes less time to upgrade our lines.
And Japan is relatively small too.

It's similar with our 3G cellphone networks too. All of us over here have had video calling for years on our cellphones. So we're really surprised that the iPhone has only just gone 3G ... and not even video calling yet.

[Fanboy Slaughter]

Once again, speedy broadband continues to get buried by the likes of Comcast and their price-gouging of American Customers.

I guess starting later this year, my 10Mb/s cable connection (which was STANDARD by Insight) is going to be classified as "business class", and is going to run me about $60/month, while "residential class" as they call it, is going to be $50/month for a measly 6Mb/s. I pay $35/month now, but that's only because I had to annihilate the self-worth of a Comcast rep to get them to honor the price that was set in stone by Insight.

I knew this was going to happen, I mean, I'm not one of those "we're America and we deserve the best of EVERYTHING!!! GGGRRAHHH!" types, but I mean, seriously, Japan gets 63Mb/sec for cheaper than what we pay??!!!

This really burns my ass.

[joeynox]

here in the bronx NY I got a 30/5 connection for $45 bucks

[wrshredder]

Im from Finland and theres only few cities here that offer 21mb connection speed with the price of normal speed (1/512)

In other places that costs like hell.

[n4gzz]

I am jealous with Japanese gamers now. It hurts when i play peer to peer online game. On COD4, I usually get 3 bar and there is huge difference on your accuracy between 3 and 4 bar. I get about 5:1 KD with 4 bar easily. with 3 bar, I have hard time to maintain 3:1 KD.

[jcfilth]

didn't we know this already?

[zapass]

but a lot of people here still live in fantasy land: a wet dream where the US makes the best cars, best gaming consoles and most advanced broadband.

I brought up that touchy subject on Digg after a trip to Japan a few years ago and I got hammered back by a bunch of angry patriotic rednecks who couldn't handle some inconvenient truth.

the US infrastructure is crumbling after years of retard market fundamentalism. Private enterprise has failed us here, infrastructure requires hybrid private and public financing which goes against the dogmas of the market zealots.

OBAMA, hope you're reading ;)

[SpecialSauce]

just to be able to get to see all the tech first must be great.

[Pain]

.

[THWIP]

I just moved from Ky. to Ga., and my cable connection more than tripled...from 8mb/s DL / .550 mb/s UL to 24 mb/s DL / 1.7 mb/s UL. I can stream full length movies with ease and download 360 demos in less than 10 minutes.
I'm paying the same $33/month I paid in Ky, but am reaping the benefits of living near Atlanta.
This article is only telling a half truth. The U.S. isn't NEARLY as densely populated as the Japan, Europe, etc. If you want fast internet, you need to live in a heavily populated area that will support that kind of expense. It costs BILLIONS of $$ to lay new "pipelines" for communications; most of the U.S. operates off of 30+ y.o. cables/lines. Since housing in the U.S. is largely linear, and spread out, it's no easy or cheap task to expand those channels. In Japan, it's simple: you build NEW, and go UP.

[Lionsguard]

I thought my downloads at 500kb/sec was fast...

[xhi4]

i get like 200 kbps download speeds.......if im lucky!

lol 2 minutes for a movie? bring it on!

[LeShin]

.....and that my friends is why Digital Distribution will not take off for a VERY, VERY long time.........

[moneymaker]

wow poor america where I come from I'm lucky if I can even get 1mbps at the moment I only get 512kbps why because 1mbps cost over $120 and I'm paying $60 for my lousy 512kbps connection thats right Australian broadband is SH!T!!

[user9422077]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

[Fatmanp]

This is why i get pissed off when only people from the US pull host in Halo 3 when i have 22mb down and 2.5mb up.

[thewho]

Try living in Australia where 1.5mb connection (not download) is the average and we pay double you do, but no, we don't get unlimited, we get 15-30gb download limits.
tpg.com.au - check out their plans, they are the cheapest ISP in australia and they are no-where near any US plan.

Stop your whinging,

[cow moolester]

Ireland is worse. We've only gotten speeds above 3mb now. I'm on a 20mb package now but because one telecom operator has a monopoly on the market, they don't feel like upgrading so we were stuck with 1,2 and 3 mb packages. Luckily another company came in and destroyed them! I started out on UPC's 6mb package which 3 months later was upgraded to 12mb which 3 months later was upgraded to 20mb for free! We're getting 40mb in 3 months!

[SDS Gamerfiend]

I have Optimum Online With Boost from Cablevision. My upload speed is 5MB and my download speed is 30MB! And they are in the process of upgrading the system to 50MB upload and 50MB download! I pay $55 per month for my service.

[Mr BlueScreen]

less then 1 MB!!! And I Have DSL!!!!!!!!!!

[Fatmanp]

Well seeing as i dont pay for boradband off the of the big comapnies i get it from the smaller companies who offer 1:1 contention ratios and ADSl2+ technology. Im sorry i dont go for the most popular i go for the best.

[AIi_The_Brit]

thanks for the lag america!!!!!

[Jamaicangmr]

I just recently upgraded from 1.7mbs to a new company that gives me 8mbs for the same US$35. I had no idea countries where getting in the 20's even worst the 60's. I mean damn digital distribution is gonna be a while off huh? The fastest speed i can get in my country is 15mbs and even thats crawling compared to Japan.

[zonetrooper5]

I get 20mb broadband from Virgin Media, only problem is that they feel the need to traffic shape me while downloading or playing games online too much. =/

Seriously the internet in Britain may be cheap but its still crappy.

[thehitman]

Do you know why Japan is so fast? Because their country is SO SMALL!!. They can afford to upgrade their speeds/equipment. For Places like the US where its 100x the size of japan its harder for companies to just revamp their systems and a lot of companies monopolize areas in the U/S on top of it. Verizon is just now switching to fiber optics so sad.

[Exia]

There are roughly around 130 million people in Japan, and they get about 10x the speed that the average person gets here in the US. We have roughly 3x higher population than they do yet, our connection is slow as heck! Even though we have around 300 million, I would expect the average to be around 10 megabits! Come on now US!

[NanoGeekTech]

CASH...

There is no reason why the USA should not have the fastest or one of the fastest internet connection in the world....

That is why you are seeing pretty cool things being done with the PSP(EU and Japan) and soon the PS3(Japan) in different parts of the world because of their internet connections.

[D3acon]

We so many old presidents its hard to connect with the youth. They didn't even know there was an internet till al gore. Its ashame that people around the world have been enjoying things like 3g for years and we're just seeing this year.

Did you know that consumer technology is actually better than the tech our military is using. Things like personal optic maps are too bulky and expensive for the military to produce but there are products that are smaller and lighter which uses better chips and processors available for the average consumer. There should be a taskforce that should approve small things like this for use so we don't have to wait years. my 2 cents

[Adamalicious]

Just a few Years ago we had like the 2nd fastest internet in the world. Now I think we're around 16th. It sucks. :(

[mariusmal]

and still ppl blame european players for lag in cod4 :P

[andyboy13]

I know for a fact that I am being limited. I currently use Shaw high speed at 5Mb per second (600kps real world download speed) and I once received a phone call for 1 month of 10mb service free. I said sure they said give us a few minutes and restart your modem. Well, I restarted it and bang double the speed in under 2 minutes from being accepted. Call me crazy, but there is obviously some BS going around with ISP's and there really needs to be more done about it if DD is going to be the next best thing.

[Weed]

Damn. I bet they get awesome pings to each other. They prolly don't even have to worry about dedicated servers with japanese games just p2p it.

[jd317]

I have Comcast in Houston and I get 20mbps, and I still get some lag in COD4 every once in a while.

[David Hasselhoff]

I get 15Mb/s, fastest in my area...it's more than enough speed for me.

[JokerSGS]

Well I know I'm ranked in the top 95% in the world and 92% in America. Test yourself with http://www.speedtest.net. And for those wondering I live in the NYC area, in case you feel location has something to do with it. I actually went down 1% in both fields from the last time I did the test. Might be this no script thing on Firefox. And thats with a router. And woot for Optimum Online. And to SDS Gamerfiend, was paying extra for that boost that they offer worth it. I was going to do it but didn't know if I'd really need that much bandwidth.

But I've always wondered why is it that slow in the US but not in other places?

[WeaponX]

My buddy hacked my comcast modem an i was getting 16mbs dls, but my girl wanted to move into this swanky apt complex and all they have is DSL(no hacks for it as yet). The reason your speed is slow is because the internet companies want it that way. SUX

[OOG]

yeah my cousin works for a big internet company here in Canada and he said that when he was talking to the higher ups b4 they were saying how they have the cable network set up to be able to go 50mbps but.....they said for the most part it is not worth it because slowly they can upgrade and charge more and then when price goes back to cheap do it again....that and also the fact that they said for the most part the average people never use the full capacity of their internet.....sometime barely a fraction....while some other people using the cable internet download and upload enough to cover 50 peoples worth of internet connection

its just not needed yet....so they dont offer it...its all about money in the end

[zozol]

i live in Europe and i have 10mbit download and 1mb upload no limits but it cost me monthly about 40USD but this includes free from charge telephone (24/7 free calls in the country) plus charge for cable TV with packages HBO Canal+, sport etc. and Live TV (all channels via net from WWW) for about 30 USD

I always thougt in US Net is CHEAP&FAST... :(

[Solid_Skip]

iam station here and the internet ist great you have choices from fiber, to dsl

[ghettocheeze]

Are we talking about rural Japan or Tokyo?

U.S has outdated infrastructure but we cover freak millions of square miles and widely available almost everywhere.

[OOG]

one thing....Canada is a bigger country.....size wise.....and way less people...so.....why do we have a much faster internet then the States? lol

[JokerSGS]

Canada's bigger than the US? It's close but I think the US has it beat. Remember the US is a pretty big country.

[SSCOOLCHEA]

who the F wants to download movies anyways . oh yeah maybe 10 people on n4g . as long as my cpu is running and playing games with no lag who gives a f . people should concentrate on other important shil...