In 2008, Akamai Technologies began publishing a quarterly report on the State of the Internet based on connections to its massive network. The company's report on the fourth quarter of 2008 confirms what a lot of us have read about the U.S.'s relative broadband competitiveness, but also offers a surprise about Appleseed's home state of New York.

As of the fourth quarter of 2008, the U.S. ranked ninth worldwide in the percentage of all Internet connections with speeds of 5 Mbps or greater (25 percent). Not surprisingly, the top two countries during the same time period were South Korea (69 percent) and Japan (54 percent).

% of Internet connections above 5 Mbps, top ten countries(Source: Akamai State of the Internet, 4th Quarter 2008)

Here's the surprise: as of the fourth quarter of 2008, all New York State Internet connections averaged 5.37 Mbps, with 46 percent of connections averaging more than 5 Mbps. On a list of states ranked by the percent of Internet connections faster than 5 Mbps, this puts New York in third place, behind Delaware (62 percent) and New Hampshire (56 percent).

% of Internet connections above 5 Mbps, top ten states(Source: Akamai State of the Internet, 4th Quarter 2008)

To put this in perspective, if New York State were a separate country, it would rank third in the percentage of Internet connections faster than 5 Mbps – just behind South Korea and Japan.