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Need to Speed up U.S. Broadband

The speed at which Americans access the Internet has declined from first place to 15th since the network came into existence, according to Speed Matters, a Communications Workers of America union (CWA) non-profit outlet that just published its second annual state-by-state survey of broadband speeds. InformationWeek's report on the survey noted that while the median download speed enjoyed by Americans is 2.35 Mbps, Japan's speed is 63.6 Mbps. That decimal point is not misplaced.

The speed at which Americans access the Internet has declined from first place to 15th since the network came into existence, according to Speed Matters, a Communications Workers of America union (CWA) non-profit outlet that just published its second annual state-by-state survey of broadband speeds. InformationWeek's report on the survey noted that while the median download speed enjoyed by Americans is 2.35 Mbps, Japan's speed is 63.6 Mbps. That decimal point is not misplaced.The CWA says that lower broadband speeds affect American workers' and companies' ability to compete, and there is much to be said for that position. However, the organization's findings are interesting for a variety of reasons.

From the point of view of insurance carriers, the state-by-state findings may illuminate what functionality will be better to deploy or avoid deploying in states that have higher or lower speeds. The survey found a correlation between speed and population density, exemplified by the gap between Rhode Island's median download speed of 6.8 Mbps and Alaska's 0.8 Mbps. Such stark differences could make all the difference when implementing functionality for a variety of purposes, perhaps especially in the case of communications and transaction capabilities in the health insurance world.

Another thought is that if other countries have significantly higher speeds, insurers doing business in those territories will be able to deploy new kinds of functionality earlier. That could constitute a proving ground for multinational insurers who also have operations in the U.S., such as AXA, ING, Allianz and Zurich. At the very least, American insurers should keep an eye on what companies in other geographies are doing, and not just the insurers.The speed at which Americans access the Internet has declined from first place to 15th since the network came into existence, according to Speed Matters, a Communications Workers of America union (CWA) non-profit outlet that just published its second annual state-by-state survey of broadband speeds. InformationWeek's report on the survey noted that while the median download speed enjoyed by Americans is 2.35 Mbps, Japan's speed is 63.6 Mbps. That decimal point is not misplaced.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio

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