Based on anecdotal evidence (excruciating Netflix buffering, for instance) most Angelenos already know that their Internet service is slow and that they pay too much for it. When compared to other major metropolitan cities like Seoul, South Korea, or Hong Kong, it's confirmed: Los Angeles internet sucks, says the LA Weekly, using data provided by the Cost of Connectivity study. The study looked at 24 cities in the US and across the globe and found that, in terms of fastest download speeds, LA ranked a disappointing twelfth place. Don't worry, it ranked pretty high in terms of costs!
The one-gigabit (1,000 Mbps) speeds available in places like Seoul or Hong Kong aren't even widely available in the US; if you can get it, it's either from the rarely-bestowed Google Fiber or super-local providers, at least in the cases of the four cities surveyed for this report. (LA is working on citywide access that could include speeds up to a gigabit.) In LA, the fastest you can get is 500 Mbps, and it will cost you $300 a month, says the report. Even if they don't want or need the fastest download speeds available on Earth right now, Angelenos will pay more: "The price of service for a speed at which you could load a typical YouTube video (1.3 seconds) is nearly twice as much in Los Angeles ($54) as it is in Seoul ($28)," LAW points out. These charts show how LA ranks in terms of other cities across the globe for price and speed of service:
· The Cost of Connectivity 2014 [Official Site]
· L.A.'s Internet Service Is Among the Slowest & Most Costly in the World [LAW]
· Oh No, Time Warner Wants to Build LA's Citywide Internet [Curbed LA]
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