Blissful Japan

Speedtest.net has put aggregated statistics for all people using its Internet speed test service - pretty cool. You can view the speed test results from anyone, anywhere in the world. Check out the speed data for ISPs from Tokyo. I’m on USEN which currently tops the upload speeds at 17571kb/s, and is ranked near the top for download at 24465kb/s. I’m not sure where Speedtest.net’s servers are located, but I think if they were in Japan the speeds would be noticeably higher. This also doesn’t take into account the different plans people are using; for instance some USEN FTTH plans are bridged over VDSL within the local building, and some are pure Ethernet straight through… Personally the maximum download speed I’ve experienced has been around 3.5mb/s and about the same for upload.

It’s interesting to compare my 4000 yen a month (approx $40) 100mb/s fiber with my mom’s $55/month Cox cable modem from Laguna Niguel, California, which offers a decent 10258kb/s download but a pathetic asynchronous 631kb/s upload speed.