PC World is reporting that the U.S. is continuing to land behind other nations with the availability of high-speed broadband connections according to a report by the Communications Workers of America.

The report, based on aggregated data from nearly 80,000 broadband users, found that the median real-time download speed in the U.S. is 1.9Mbit/sec., compared with 61Mbit/sec. in Japan, 45Mbit/sec. in South Korea, 17Mbit/sec. in France and 7Mbit/sec. in Canada.

The report is based on data collected through the speed test at SpeedMatters.org, a CWA project launched last September “to help bridge the digital divide and keep America competitive by encouraging the government to adopt national policies to bring about universal, affordable high speed broadband access for all Americans, no matter where they live.” The CWA is a labor union with a membership of more than 700,000 in fields such as telecommunications, media, manufacturing, health care, and aviation.

According to the report, the U.S. is 16th in the world in deployment and availability of high-speed networks.

This is disgusting. U.S. consumers continue to be raped by our Internet providers as they keep making us pay more and are even considering billing by the byte. Yet, we’re still not receiving the speeds the rest of the industrial world is enjoying. It sure doesn’t look like competition alone is working for the Internet.

Tags: broadband, internet broadband, at&t broadband, att broadband