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East Coast Broadband Fastest In USA

Death Metal Maniac writes "The study, which was conducted by affordable-broadband advocacy group Speed Matters, found that the nine states with the fastest median download connections are all located on the East Coast. Rhode Island (6.8Mbps) and Delaware (6.7Mbps) have the fastest, and nearly triple the national median download speed of 2.3Mbps. Rounding out the Top 5 states are New Jersey (5.8Mbps), Virginia (5Mbps) and Massachusetts (4.6Mbps)."

21 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. geh by snarfies · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's nice.

    Meanwhile, as of last week, we STILL cannot buy FIOS in Philadelphia. No matter how much I want to give Verizon my money, they just won't take it.

    1. Re:geh by FredFredrickson · · Score: 4, Informative

      Up here in NH (One of the many states nobody cares about, apparently), I got a flyer from my new local provider called Fairpoint.

      There was a big controversy over fairpoint buying out NH, Vermont, and Maine, because fairpoint clearly didn't have the resources to roll out fiber optics, and verizon had "plans" to, (apparently not).

      Anyway, I got a flyer from them announcing faster-than-ever 7.1 mbps downloads. Of course, in Boston, Comcast offers 16 mbps, but hey, this was still a nice move from my current verizon dsl at 3 mbps.

      So I called them up and asked how to get started. They did some checking on things, and told me it wasn't available in my area. I was confused. Did they not have my address when they sent me the flyer? I begged them to take money from me, I just want some speed, please! But alas, We live in the USA. In internet terms, we're third world.

      --
      Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    2. Re:geh by nine-times · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So I called them up and asked how to get started. They did some checking on things, and told me it wasn't available in my area. I was confused. Did they not have my address when they sent me the flyer?

      Yeah. Frustrating. I've been having fliers delivered to my doorstep for *years* now, and yet they're not even remotely in my area. It's not just a situation where the neighbors down the street can get FiOS, but I'm just barely on the other side of the line-- no. You can't get FiOS in my zip code. You can't even get it in my neighboring zipcodes.

    3. Re:geh by yuna49 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Boston was supposedly the first metro area they rolled out FiOS, and while almost every suburb has it around here their urban penetration has been exactly ZERO.

      While Slashdotters are often more interested in FiOS internet service, it's cable television services which call the shots. To offer cable in a locality, Verizon must first obtain a license from the city or town. As of now, the City of Boston has not granted them a license. Looking at the City's website, I don't see any evidence that Verizon has applied for a license either.

      Maybe you should call them to see where the licensing procedure stands?

    4. Re:geh by nabsltd · · Score: 4, Interesting

      While Slashdotters are often more interested in FiOS internet service, it's cable television services which call the shots. To offer cable in a locality, Verizon must first obtain a license from the city or town.

      This is only for TV service. I had FIOS internet for nearly two years before my county approved Verizon as a cable TV provider.

    5. Re:geh by Ultra64 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Bad Analogy Guy, is that you?

    6. Re:geh by Ucklak · · Score: 4, Informative

      Cox

      Arkansas
      $45 for 9mbps
      $60 for 12mbps
      http://www.cox.com/gocox/HighSpeedInternet/

      Arizona
      $45 for 12mbps
      $60 for 20
      http://www.cox.com/arizona/hsi.asp

      Santa Barbara
      $50 for 5mbps
      $65 for 12mbps
      http://www.cox.com/santabarbara/highspeedinternet/packages.asp

      Idaho
      $42 to $56 for
      7 mbps to 12 mbps
      http://www.cox.com/idaho/highspeedinternet/pricing.asp

      --
      if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
  2. Only 6.8Mbps? by adnonsense · · Score: 5, Informative

    I live on the East Coast (of Japan) and have a 100Mbps-rated optical fibre connection. Though the fastest I've got out of it is a piddling 87Mbps.

    Muahaha.

    1. Re:Only 6.8Mbps? by whtmarker · · Score: 4, Informative

      I live on the East Coast (of Japan) and have a 100Mbps-rated optical fibre connection. Though the fastest I've got out of it is a piddling 87Mbps.

      Muahaha.

      We are talking median speed. If you and your 5 neighbors have speeds of 1,1,2,3 and 87 your median speed is 2Mbps.

  3. flawed test by spectrokid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This test is the same like those websites where you can test your download speed. They are all flawed in that they don't take your subscription into account. If you have somebody who subscribed for a cheapass 512/512 ADSL, he pulls the average down. Those tests should be limited to those who pay for "all you can get". Otherwise it tells more about a states economical position then about their internet access.

    --

    10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then

    1. Re:flawed test by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Informative

      They are all flawed in that they don't take your subscription into account.

      It depends who's using the list. If I'm designing web pages, I want to know what people in my target demographic HAVE, not what they can get. If it's a penis size competition, then I question the study's usefulness. Besides, we have the Olympics for that - and China has the biggest gold dick. Though the US has true melting pot of total dicks.

      Interestingly, all of these states are densely populated. From Wikipedia:
      Rhode Island ranked 2
      Delaware ranked 6
      New Jersey ranked 1
      Virginia ranked 14
      Massachusetts ranked 3

      The only think close to an outlier there is Virginia, which is still densely populated over near Washington - which would actually be number 1 if it were a state.

      I guess if I lived in number 4 Connecticut or number 5 Maryland, I'd want to know what was up!

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  4. Duh by Wellington+Grey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    East Coast. Rhode Island (6.8Mbps) and Delaware (6.7Mbps) have the fastest, and nearly triple the national median download speed of 2.3Mbps. Rounding out the Top 5 states are New Jersey (5.8Mbps), Virginia (5Mbps) and Massachusetts (4.6Mbps).

    The states with the slowest median download speeds primarily are located in the Midwestern or Western regions of the United States, including Idaho (1.3Mbps), Wyoming (1.3Mbps), Montana (1.3Mbps) and North Dakota (1.2Mbps); Alaska had the slowest download speed (0.8Mbps). I


    Is anyone surprised that small, densely populated states have higher download speeds than large, sparsely populated ones? It's the same argument that comes up every time worldwide broadband speeds are discussed: small and dense = easier to wire.

    -Grey

  5. check this out: by amnezick · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In Romania UPC gives 20mbps for ~30$/mo ... and it is considered a developing country.

    --
    mov ax,4c00h
    int 21h
  6. so far behind by sam_paris · · Score: 4, Informative

    Two years ago, when I lived in Paris, I got 20Mbit. Now I live in New York and get more like 4Mbit.

    Yep, the world's richest country is years behind in technology infrastructure..

    1. Re:so far behind by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's the population density, idiot! It's easier for France to have better broadband because the people are all close together! Japan is even faster because everyone in Japan lives in Tokyo which has a really big population density! You can't compare Paris to somewhere sparsely populated like New York!

      No, wait...

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  7. We have 50 Mbps fiber in Utah by GiovanniZero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The study obviously wasn't that thorough. We have Fiber in utah that gives you 50 Mbps UP and down for $80/mo. It's a helluva lot cheaper and better than Verizon fios.

    --
    Mod me up, mod me down, do your worst you modding clown.
  8. Re:Rest of the world by aadvancedGIR · · Score: 4, Informative

    In french urban areas, the standard ADSL is 24Mb/s ATM (8 to 18Mb/s real TCP BW) for 29 to 39E/Mo (with unlimited phone and taxes included), but in a few major cities, 100Mb/s cable is being deployed and sold for the same price.

  9. Duh. by clone53421 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Al Gore was born in Washington D.C. so obviously the internet is fastest on the east coast. The packets don't have to travel as far to reach him.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  10. Obviously... by Quixote · · Score: 4, Funny

    RI can be covered by a handful of WiFi APs , so that's no surprise.... ;-)

  11. hmmm by nomadic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I get about 756k in Miami for $10 a month. I could go faster I guess, but why bother? When I went from 2400 baud to 44k baud, that was really cool. When I went from 44k baud to cable modem, that was really cool. Any incremental increase after that is eh.

  12. You mean gangsta rap lies?!? by philspear · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't understand this at all. Tupac said "Let's show these fools how we do it on the west side, cause you and I know it's the best side." All this talk about west coast is the best coast, now you're trying to tell me east side is better? That doesn't even rhyme! How do you expect me to believe you?