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Berkeley, California Has The World's Fastest Average Broadband Speeds

by Caleb Johnson on April 21, 2010 at 07:20 AM

Where can you find the fastest broadband Internet speeds on the whole planet? According to Ars Technica, the crown goes to Berkeley, California, which has the fastest average broadband Internet speed on Earth -- at 18.7Mbps. This West Coast college town beat out, according to Akamai Technologies' State of the Internet Report, other major urban hubs in both Asia and Europe. The U.S fared surprisingly well, with Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Stanford, California (at 17.5 and 17.0 Mbps, respectively) rounding out the top three.

So what's to credit for this U.S. high-speed domination? Well, as the report illustrates, these three cities have one thing in common: each is home to a major research university. This trend holds true, too, as you look at the other U.S. cities near the top of the list: Durham, North Carolina; Ithaca, New York; Ann Arbor, Michigan; College Station, Texas; Urbana, Illinois; Cambridge, Massachusetts; University Park, Pennsylvania; and East Lansing, Michigan. Once again, all are homes to research universities. In fact, if you removed college towns from the list, there would be no U.S. cities left on it.

We're pleased that our college students have access to high-speed Internet, as it's a necessity in today's learning environment. But this study also brings to light the need for an overhaul of consumer broadband policies and access. This data doesn't represent a huge victory (since we're still stuck on a 10Mbps connection), but it definitely serves as motivation to become the true leader in national broadband access. [From: Ars Technica]

Tags: bandwidth, broadband, connectivity, Internet, List, research, study, top, university, web

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