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Which country has the fastest Internet connection? If you are thinking the United States, think again! The Communications Workers of America (CWA) recently conducted a survey to rank the countries of the world based on the speed of their Internet connection. The results were published in a report, and guess what? South Korea ranked number 1 with the average download speed of 20.4 megabits per second!

Compared to that speed, the United States lags far behind at only 5.1 mbps. In fact, the US ranked only 28th. The other top “scorers” are Japan with 15.8 mbps, Sweden with 12.8 mbps, and the Netherlands with 11.0 mbps.

So just how fast is the Internet in the top countries? In Japan, for example, users can upload a video in high def within 12 minutes. Compare this to the 2.5 hours it would take the average American to do the same thing.

Who tested the speeds? Speedmatters.org was the one responsible for the testing and the organization reported that from 2008 to 2009, the average speed in the US increased by a mere nine-tenths of a megabit per second. The outlook does not seem very bright, as there does not seem to be any indication that the US will be making any significant progress in improving infrastructure.

On the bright side, President Obama has promised to make broadband available to every home in the US. While that does not mean that the speeds will increase, at least more people should be able to gain access to the Internet.

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