How Connected is Your Community?

from Bill Moyers' What Matters Today,

How Connected is Your Community?

February 8, 2013

by John Light

As telecommunications policy expert Susan Crawford points out in this week’s Moyers & Company, over the past decade, America has fallen behind many other wealthy countries in access to high-speed Internet. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently ranked America 15th internationally, with broadband available to only 68.2 percent of households. Compare that with 87 percent in Iceland or 97.5 in Korea. Our slower Internet is also more expensive than in other parts of the world.

According to a report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a certain amount of America’s lack of high-speed Internet can be attributed to population density. America is far more spread out than, say, Korea, and faster connections are possible when the length of the wires from the phone company to your home is shorter. But that’s not the full story — in Canada, a country far less dense than the U.S., 72.2 percent of households have broadband.

Where does your community fall within the spectrum of connectivity? The National Broadband Map can tell you (click “Explore Maps”).

Before exploring the data, you can test your own connection speed using the FCC’s quality test.

Read the entire article here.