The United States has fallen behind other industrialized nations in high-speed Internet access and may never catch up, unless quick action is taken, a report commissioned by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) warns.

"We have pathetic speeds compared to the rest of the world," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "People don't pay attention to the fact that the country that started the commercial Internet is falling woefully behind."

In May 2005 TrylonSMR published a newsletter article regarding this issue. At that time, it was hoped that private industry would lead the nation back to parity – or dominance in the Internet speed wars. So far this strategy appears to be failing.

According to Cohen, the U.S. spends less on telecommunications as a percentage of our national income than our major competitors, and is missing a real opportunity to create a stronger economy and the 21st century jobs that the nation needs to remain competitive.

“In only a few short years at least 15 countries have gone years and years ahead of where we'll ever get unless we develop an aggressive policy to compete," he continued.

Speed matters on the Internet. A 10-megabyte file takes about 15 seconds to download with a 5-megabit connection — fast for the USA. Download time with a 545-kilobit connection, about the entry-level speed in many areas takes almost two and a half hours.

Additionally, although President George W. Bush promised during his re-election campaign that all Americans would have access to affordable broadband by 2007, many rural Americans still have no way to connect.

The median U.S. download speed is now 1.97 megabits per second — a fraction of the 61 megabits per second enjoyed by consumers in Japan, says the report. Other speedy countries include South Korea (at 45 megabits), France (17 megabits) and Canada (7 megabits).

The report is based on input from 80,000 broadband users (fewer than five percent of respondents used dial-up). In addition to drawing comparisons with other countries, the report ranks U.S. states on median download speeds (upload speeds are also rated.). If you would like to test your computer’s connection speed, go to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/.