Nevada’s Internet speed lags behind 32 other states

Nevada ranks in the bottom half of states in the average download speed for Internet connections, according to a report Wednesday from the Communications Workers of America.

The state ranked 33rd in the country. The union report said the U.S. is 25th among nations and that South Korea, Sweden and the Netherlands lead the world in Internet speed.

"Broadband (high speed Internet service) is the infrastructure of the 21st century, and we need to have a world-class Internet network to be globally competitive," said Debbie Goldman, telecommunications policy director at CWA.

For example, a rural industrial park must be able to offer high-speed Internet service so the businesses in the park can reach their customers and suppliers, she said.

A rural hospital without high-speed Internet service cannot send patient images to medical specialists in big cities, she said.

Based on results from 3,274 participants in the Internet speed test, Nevadans had a median download speed of 3.19 megabits per second.

That's faster than the national rate of 3 megabits per second but slower than the Federal Communications Commission broadband standard of 4 megabits per second. The telecommunications union said 49 percent of Americans fail to meet the FCC's minimum broadband standard of 4 megabits per second for downloads and 1 megabits per second for uploads.

The 3.19 megabits per second also represents an improvement over the state's 2.99 megabits per second download median in 2009 and 1.62 megabits per second in 2007, according to the study.

Yet 58 percent of Nevadans today rely on 4 megabits per second or slower speed Internet service. The study showed 17 percent have 4 to 10 megabits per second speeds and 24 percent have 10 to 25 megabits per second speeds.

Nevada's median upload speed was 0.62 megabits per second, compared with 0.6 megabits per second nationally.

The CWA report shows that parts of the Las Vegas metropolitan and Reno areas enjoy median upload speeds of more than 10 megabits per second, while most rural areas have speeds of 4 megabits per second or less.

The FCC has determined that 24 million Americans have no access to high-speed broadband Internet networks, Goldman said. However, 100 million Americans don't subscribe to high-speed network systems, and that means about 76 million Americans have access to high-speed Internet service but fail to subscribe.

Studies show that the reasons range from being unable to afford the service to lack of technological knowledge about the Internet and lack of interest in the service, Goldman said.

"Nevada is certainly no different than the rest of the country," said CWA spokesman Chuck Porcari.

However, South Korea has about 10 times the median Internet speed in the United States, according to the CWA.

The fastest states on the Internet are Delaware at 13.4 megabits per second, followed by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland and New York. Montana at 1.2 megabits per second, Wyoming, Arkansas and Mississippi are the slowest states on the Internet.

"Improving broadband deployment, connection speeds and adoption will help facilitate job and business growth across the nation," CWA President Larry Cohen said in a statement.

Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0420.