The United States may be a bedrock of technological innovation, but when it comes to something as basic as Internet browsing speed, there’s a whole lot of room for improvement. In fact, if you look at a ranking of average Internet connection speed across different countries, the United States doesn’t even manage crack the top 10.
Thankfully, though, the number of high-speed Internet options for consumers to choose from is growing slowly but surely with each passing year.
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Not only does Comcast’s upper tier Internet service provide browsing speeds of 75 Mbps, but Google Fiber can support speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps, or 1 gigabit of data per second. By way of contrast, the average connection speed in the U.S. stands at just 11.5 Mbps. Though Google Fiber is only available in a few select cities currently, the speed it provides is an undeniable glimpse into the future of computing.
Nonetheless, it’s not always easy to truly appreciate how fast a service like Google Fiber really is. Truth be told, most people probably couldn’t tell you off-hand if there’s any appreciable difference between a 3 Mbps and 6 Mbps connection. For many, the mere mention of Mbps or gigabit is reason enough to start zoning out.
The following video cleverly demonstrates the difference between varying Internet speeds by using a bucket of dripping water to represent bandwidth. Things start off slowly, with just a drip, as the video illustrates what a 768 Kbps connection looks like. By the time the video gets to a 1 Gbps connection, which is what Google Fiber provides, well, let’s just say that the future of hyper-fast Internet speed for the masses can’t come soon enough.
