Pa. lags N.J., Del. in Internet speed

A new survey of Internet speeds places Delaware No. 1, New Jersey No. 3, and Pennsylvania No. 13 in the United States.

The average download speed was 9.91 megabits per second (mbps) in Delaware and 8.86 in New Jersey.

Pennsylvania was 6.46 megabits per second. Pennsylvania has more rural areas, which sometimes are not served by a cable broadband provider. The Philadelphia area's Internet speeds were among the highest in the state, according to the study by the Communications Workers of America, which was released yesterday.

The national average was 5.07 megabits per second. It takes about an hour to download a standard-definition movie over the Internet at that speed.

The CWA released the study as the Federal Communications Commission in Washington is considering a national broadband plan to upgrade the U.S. Internet infrastructure. President Obama's economic-stimulus plan earmarks about $7 billion for broadband projects.

The CWA and others say the United States trails Asian and European nations in Internet speeds - an economic disadvantage, they contend. The union would like greater investment in Internet equipment to generate jobs for union members.

Pennsylvania's Internet speeds are going "in the right direction, but if you compare it to our competitors in East Asia, we are still far behind," said Debbie Goldman, telecommunications policy director and research economist for the CWA. The study indicates that Pennsylvania's average Internet speeds doubled between 2007 and 2009.

The CWA says that the average Internet download speed in South Korea is 20 mbps.

Densely populated areas with telecom competitors - typically a cable company and Verizon Communications Inc. or AT&T Inc. - had the fastest service in the nation, Goldman said.

The CWA gathered the results from people who visited the speedmatters.org Web site. Nationally, 413,000 people tested their Internet speeds between May 2008 and May 2009 on speedmatters.org. Experts say the study was not adjusted for population differences among states.

Comcast Corp. spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said that the cable giant was investing heavily in boosting Internet speed and that the yearlong test period may have failed to capture some of the improvements. Comcast is the nation's largest residential Internet broadband provider.