Maryland: 10th-fastest internet speeds in nation

December 2, 2008

PCMag.com released its “Best ISPs in America” list today. Maryland came in 10th in terms of the fastest average Internet connection in the country as measured by kilobits per second, or kbps. A quick look at the state’s summary:

Population: 5,618,344
Area: 12,407 square miles
 Average speed: 691 Kbps
 SurfSpeed rank: 10th
Satisfied users: 49 percent
Median monthly price of broadband: $39
 Broadband penetration: 68.9 percent

Fast Internet access, satisfied customers, and great crab cakes: What more could you ask for? Maryland residents reported the fastest access from Verizon FiOS (of course), but a range of other decent local providers make for a cornucopia of service offerings. So why are people using HughesNet’s slow satellite service? With an average of 192 Kbps, those slow connections dragged down the state’s overall speed in our survey.

Our neighbors to the North and South fared well, with Virginia at No. 2, Pennsylvania at No. 3 and New Jersey at No. 4. Nevada came in first.

A look at the full list paints an interesting picture of broadband penetration throughout the country. The farther down the list you go, the more likely you are to come across a Southern or western state that’s not especially known for its dense population centers. Or, in the words of PCMag:

Looking at the state level proves more interesting. Clearly, metropolitan areas are better cared for by Internet service providers, as a rule. More densely populated areas across the country reported better and faster service on our test. So we could have studied, say, the speed of access in St. Paul versus that in Albuquerque. But think of the overall speed of a state as a balance between how quickly cities get online and how effectively more rural areas are served. If half a state’s residents can’t even get broadband access, how well served is the state as a whole? After all, people in suburbs and more rural towns want to get online too, and they prefer faster Internet speeds, just like city folk.

That sounds like a good summary of Maryland to me, what with all the debate and struggle to bring improved broadband access to the Eastern Shore and some of the state’s more rural areas. While it’s true (from my own observations) that Montgomery County’s “tech corridor” and the Greater Baltimore region have excellent Internet access, I think until we can spread this technology throughout the entire state we risk dividing ourselves into two Marylands, and are failing to take advantage of the state’s full resources.

Go here for the full story and more in-depth charts breaking down the results.

JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist

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Posted by Jackie Sauter, Web Editor | Filed Under business, maryland 

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