SEATTLE – Washington state is home to the biggest tech and Internet companies around, from Microsoft to Amazon.com. But, a new report says Washington is the fifth-slowest state when it comes to Internet speed, even though five of its cities have the fastest average connection speeds in the country.
Akamai Techonologies released its "State of the Internet" report for the first quarter of 2010. Among other things, it looks at broadband and narrowband connection usage.
According to Akamai Industries, 6.6 percent of Washingtonians use narrowband connections (speeds below 256 Kbps). That puts the Evergreen State fifth in the country for narrowband connectivity. While Akamai says Washington's narrowband usage has dropped nine percent in the first quarter, it was still up 116 percent over the same period last year.
In contrast, the report says five cities in Washington – Federal Way, Everett, Olympia, Bellevue and Vancouver – are among the top ten in the country for average maximum connection speeds. All of them averaged over 24,000 Kbps for the first quarter. Salem, Ore. is also in the top 10.
Here are the ten states with the most narrowband connectivity:
- Alaska
- New Jersey
- District of Columbia
- Georgia
- Washington
- Missouri
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Texas
- Ohio
And here are the cities with the fastest average connection speeds:
- Monterey Park, Calif.
- Federal Way, Wash.
- Everett, Wash.
- Olympia, Wash.
- Bellevue, Wash.
- Vancouver, Wash.
- Salem, Ore.
- Hickory, N.C.
- Boston Metro, Mass.
- Fairfield, Calif.
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