The northeastern part of the United States may be endowed with faster Internet than most other quadrants of the country. However, it doesn't have the undisputed champ in terms of Internet speed.
The fastest connection speed in the country belongs to the state of Virginia. The southern state, which is known for raising presidents and housing the CIA, has almost twice the Internet speed of Alaska, Arkansas, Kentucky and Montana.
A map from Internet services provider Broadview Networks shows the disparity in connection speeds in different parts of the country. In general, people in northern states seem to have faster Internet speeds than their southern brethren. However, there are states that don't fit this simplification. The states of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming rank low in terms of connection speeds, breaking rank with other states in the same region.
The map lifted its data from the latest State of the Internet report of New York-based cloud services company Akamai. In its rankings, Akamai revealed that Virginia clocked in with an average of 13.7 megabytes per second. Its closest rivals were Delaware and Massachusetts, which both registered connection speeds of 13.1 megabytes per second.
Virginia managed to hold on to the top spot in spite of a decline in its average connection speed. During the first period of the year, the state recorded a 4.3% drop in Internet speed compared to the last quarter of 2013. While Virginia's average connection speed represents the summit of American network capability, it actually lags behind compared to Internet services in other countries.
Virginia's connection speed is just about half of South Korea's, which has an average of 23.6 megabytes per second. The country's fastest Internet is just below the average speed in Hong Kong. The Chinese administrative region clocks in at 13.3 megabytes per second. Hong Kong ranks third in terms of Internet speed globally.
In the US, Alaska has the slowest Internet speed at 7 megabytes per second. Arkansas, Kentucky and Montana all averaged 7.3 megabytes per second. Of all the states in the top ten, only Virginia had a decline in Internet speed. The gains ranged from Massachusetts' 2.6 percent to Michigan's 13 percent.
