PC Magazine - USA (2019-12)

(Antfer) #1

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high-tech cities with their lower-speed rural regions.


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and it’s pretty obvious from basic geography what those states have in common:
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major cities.


Alaska has unique challenges, that’s for sure. In much of the state, the only
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“Gen5” satellite service that most of the rest of the country gets. Towns in
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Urban Alaska showed somewhat better speeds, with a median desktop
download speed of 37.5Mbps in Anchorage and 20.2Mbps in Wasilla. That’s
still not great, but at least it’s broadband.


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quite slow.


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to sign up for the fast link.


And bear in mind that not everyone in “fast” states has a fast internet
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with sub-10Mbps connections.


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