How fast is your broadband connection?

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on January 25th, 2009

Try this free test.

We found out our download is 741 Kbps and our upload is 133 Kbps.

From the Broadband Report:

As of June 2008, 96.47 per cent of US workers connected to the Internet with broadband, up 0.52 percentage points from the 95.95 per cent share in May. At work, 3.53 per cent connect at 56Kbps or less.

We suspect the folks who connect at work at the pokey 56 Kbps speed do so because broadband isn’t necessary– All they need it for is email or other low-bandwidth apps.

Also:

US broadband penetration broke ninety percent among active Internet users in June 2008. Broadband jumped to 90.5% in June, up 0.53 percentage points over the previous month.

Nielsen Online defines an “active internet user” as one who has logged onto the internet in the last 30 days. They estimate there are 151 million aiu’s in the U.S.

And, again from the Broadband Report, news of a significant move by the FCC:

The FCC has approved the regulated use of the “white spaces” between and among the unused analog TV channels, for unlicensed devices. With the transition to digital television by February 2009, the soon to be empty analog channels can be used for other purposes. Some estimate that wireless providers could use the lower frequency TV spectrum to provide universal broadband access for every household in America for as little as $10 per month (Calabrese and Scott 2006).

FCC head Kevin Martin said that the approval of rules authorizing the use of TV white spaces spectrum “is a significant victory for consumers… Opening the white spaces will allow for the creation of a WiFi on steroids.”

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