Why U.S. Ranks 10th to 20th Globally for Fixed Network Performance, and Has Since the Days of Voice

One of the most-recurring stories about U.S. communications infrastructure deployment, app use or performance is that it “lags” what other countries achieve, especially in the early days of deployment, but virtually always even after “full deployment.” That might seem curious, but is well attested, historically. 

A recent set of tests by M-Lab, for example, found the United States ranks in spot 20 of nations or city state access speeds, using the M-Labs methodology, which tests device speeds, not router speeds, typically based on use of a Wi-Fi connection. 

Position Country

1 Liechtenstein

2 Jersey

3 Andorra

4 Gibraltar

5 Luxembourg

6 Iceland

7 Switzerland

8 Hong Kong

9 Monaco

10 Hungary

11 Netherlands

12 Aruba

13 Malta

14 Denmark

15 Aland Islands

16 Sweden

17 Bermuda

18 Singapore

19 Slovak Republic

20 United States

source: Cable.co.uk

That is not an unusual position for U.S. performance. Consider voice adoption, where the best the United States ever ranked was about 15th globally, for teledensity (people provided with phone service). 

A couple of issues are worth keeping in mind. First, large countries always move slower than small countries or city-states, simply because construction of networks takes time and lots of capital. That explains the deployment gap, early on in the life cycle of any next-generation network. 

The other mostly unmentioned issue is geography and density. We often “forget” that six percent of the U.S. landmass is where most people live. About 94 percent of the land mass is unpopulated or lightly populated. 

And rural areas present the greatest challenge for deployment of communications facilities, or use of apps that require such facilities. That large expanse of unpopulated land also means there are constraints on the viability of fixed and mobile network coverage. Up to this point, only satellite coverage has made economic sense for very-large portions of the landmass. 

Simply, where facilities cannot be built and recover the investments, those investments are made only when subsidies are sufficient to reach breakeven or slightly better. 

The bottom line is that it is quite typical for U.S. performance for almost any important new infrastructure-related technology to lag other nations. It never matters, in the end. 

Eventually, the U.S. ranks somewhere between 10th and 20th on any given measure of technology adoption. That has been the pattern since the time of analog voice.