Moore’s Law states that computer power doubles every 18 months. Does Internet speed follow a similar pattern? Three years ago I reported on the average speed of the Internet in Idaho. Let’s take a look and see if the Internet in Idaho is getting any faster.
How speed is measured
There are two important measures of Internet speed: download speed and upload speed. Download speed refers to how quickly content on the web can download to your computer, such as when you download a song or or stream a video from Amazon or iTunes. Upload speed is how fast you can load content you’re your computer onto the Internet, such as when you upload a video to YouTube.
This article uses actual speed tests performed by actual web users as measured by SpeedTest.net and reported at NetIndex.com.
According to NetIndex.com, Hong Kong has the fastest download speed at 45.43 Mbps. Compare that to South Korea who was number one three years ago at 22.31 mbps (megabits per second). That means you could download an average 8MB song in about 1 second. The United States ranks 34th at 13.99 Mbps compared to our ranking 29th at 7.82 mbps three years ago.
So how does Southeast Idaho rank?
Pocatello ranks the highest at 14.8 Mbps download (compared to 5.33 Mpbs three years ago) but 17th for upload at 1.57 Mbsp.
Rexburg averaged the highest three years ago at 8.87mbps (due to a high speed connection at BYU-Idaho), but dropped to 16th at 9.40 Mbps. Rexburg is the highest in upload speed measured at 12.24 Mbsp (most likely due to BYU-Idaho).
Idaho Falls averages 12.84 Mbps for download speed and 1.61 Mbps for upload speed.
Rigby averages 2.35 Mbps for download speed and 1.28 Mbps for upload speed.
So the next time you are trying to download that episode of Downton Abbey you missed and are wondering why it’s taking so long, it’s because you’re in Idaho not Hong Kong, and because Moore’s Law doesn’t seem to apply to Internet speed.
Check your upload and download speed at SpeedTest.net. They have apps for your mobile devices as well. Check out other cities, specific ISPs, and other statistics at NetIndex.com.
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