ISP Speeds

What connection speeds can you expect?

According to the most recent data from J.D. Power and Associates, about 75 percent of residential U.S. Internet users have a fixed-broadband connection (fiber optic, cable, DSL or satellite), with the percentage of dial-up connections shrinking more every year.

Speeds for any Internet service are expressed as kilobytes per second (Kbps) or megabytes per second (Mbps); there are about 1,000 kilobytes in a megabyte. Downloading speed -- with data flowing from the Internet to the computer -- is nearly always faster than upload speed. That means it takes longer to send a photo from your computer than to download the same photo from the Internet. When a provider specifies just one speed, it's usually the download (or "downstream") speed -- and often the maximum speed rather than the more typical or average speed.

The United States lags behind many other developed countries in Internet download speeds. As of October 2007, according to an article at Ars Technica, the average advertised speed in Japan was 93.7 Mbps, compared with 8.9 Mbps for the United States. This is mainly because Japan provides hefty tax subsidies to high-speed fiber-optic networks. Average residential Internet speeds in the United States are even lower than 8.9 Mbps -- more like 2.3 Mbps, according to a 2008 survey by the Communications Workers of America.

This is fast enough for most home uses and much faster than needed for low-bandwidth tasks such as e-mail -- but not fast enough to encourage innovative programs or energy-saving telecommuting. Nor is it satisfactory to home users who save on long-distance calls by using VoIP, play a lot of games online or download a lot of music or video. These activities require more speed. With the increasing availability of movies and television on the Internet, plus future technologies on the horizon, experts say speed will become ever more important.

Faster connection speeds cost more, but actual speed also depends on location and time of day. A 2007 study at PC Magazine finds that fiber optic, cable and DSL all get slower as the day wears on. Satellite and dial-up speeds stay more consistent.

Although speed varies by the package you buy, the specific provider, and your geographic area, it's possible to draw rough generalizations about which types of Internet connection are fastest. They stack up roughly in this order, with fiber optic by far the fastest: Fiber optic, cable, DSL, satellite, dial-up.

Mobile broadband varies even more by location. In some areas it can be as fast as DSL, in others as slow as dial-up -- with plenty of locations and speeds in between. Like satellite connections, it's also more apt to be affected by weather conditions.

The speed of a fiber-optic connection depends a great deal on how much you're willing to spend. The availability of speeds of up to 50 Mbps doesn't mean much to most home users, when it costs $145 per month with a one-year contract. The more basic 10 Mbps plan (*est. $45 per month) is still plenty fast enough for most home users.

Actual average download speed, though, may be closer to the speeds of cable and DSL than to the advertised speed. A May 2007 report at PC Magazine finds the average Verizon FiOS speed actually operating at just over 3 Mbps, with the fastest cable and DSL providers nearly as fast. Though cable is generally thought faster than DSL, there's considerable overlap, with the fastest DSL providers outperforming the slowest cable providers. At the time of our report, however, the weekly CNet.com ISP speed comparison chart shows four cable providers averaging speeds of around 4 Mbps.

Future broadband expansion

Quite a bit of momentum is building for government investment in broadband infrastructure. Critics call private cable and DSL companies a "duopoly" and say they're keeping speed and access far below that of other countries competing in the world marketplace. Given President Barack Obama's commitment to including broadband in the new initiatives to build infrastructure while stimulating the economy, it seems likely that broadband will become not only much faster and less expensive, but will achieve "full penetration" -- that is, available to every residence in the country.

At least two options are being discussed. One is a national wireless network. This would provide 100 percent access, but at relatively low speeds. (At least 10 percent of Americans lack access to broadband.) The other -- which would make the U.S. more competitive with Japan and several European countries -- is investment in a 100 Mbps fiber-optic network throughout the entire country. Fiber-optic cable lines are so expensive to install that experts doubt private companies like Verizon (which has 90 percent of the fiber-optic market) can expand fast enough to make the United States competitive -- or do it at a reasonable profit.