When we last checked in on the State Of The Internet in these United States, things weren’t looking so pretty: the average speed was a painful 4.8Mbps, well below the global average. Well, according to this neat graph, things are looking up.
Net Index is a comprehensive breakdown of the data gathered by Speedtest.net, the ubiquitous online speedtesting tool. The map lets you click around to compare your state (or city) against any other.
The graph has been around for a little while, but it came to my attention when Cord Cutter noticed the fact that the average broadband speed in the US has jumped significantly in the last year. 23.9Mbps was the average in April 2014; this month, we’re up by 10 megabits, to 33.9Mbps. That’s a huge jump to happen in a year.
There’s tons of data you can pull out of the graph; one of the most interesting things I noticed was the effect that high-speed broadband availability has. Google Fiber offers gigabit speeds for reasonable prices in a few select cities — something a Comcast exec labelled as pointless a few years ago — and it’s fascinating to see the effect. Kansas City, the first Fiber location, has an average of 126Mbps, well above the state average of 39. Austin, Texas is sitting pretty at 76Mbps. Maybe people do want high-speed internet after all. [Net Index/Cord Cutter News]
