Science/Tech

Internet Speed Increased Three Times in Three-and-a-half Years, Said U.S.

By Kanika Gupta | Update Date: Jan 02, 2016 08:31 PM EST

The connection speed in U.S. has increased three times over a period of 3 ½ years to meet the customer demand of fast internet that facilitates video streaming and quick downloading. Despite that, U.S. still falls behind many other countries. According to Federal Communication Commission (FCC), the average download speed that a user gets has increased from 10 Mbps in March 2011 to 31mbps (megabits per second) in September 2014. The demand for increased internet speed is driven by the need for huge amount of bandwidth to support online gaming, movies and downloading other data. To make the services even better, the industry is gearing up to boost speed even more. With Google Inc. offering 1000 mbps in 9 cities across U.S. and AT&T offering the same speed in 20 cities has taken the use of internet and its availability an add new level, reports Reuters. Comcast is also set to join the bandwagon by the end of 2016 as it is already testing its 1000 mbps service in cities like Philadelphia.

FCC says that more than 60% of internet traffic is driven by videos and this figure is expected to go up to 80% by 2019. Even though the country is ramping up the internet speed efforts, it is still behind many countries like France, Canada, Germany and Japan. The fastest country, in terms of download speed, in the world is Luxembourg offering 47.32 mbps. "Advances in network technology are yielding significant improvements in broadband speeds and quality," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement. "Faster, better broadband will unleash new innovations and new services to improve the lives of the American people," CED Magazine reported.

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