With everyone gearing up for the “online political revolution” this year we should remember the following:

According to a Computerworld report, “the median real-time download speed in the U.S. is 1.9Mbit/sec., compared with 61Mbit/sec. in Japan, 45Mbit/sec. in South Korea, 17Mbit/sec. in France and 7Mbit/sec. in Canada.”

Not only are our speeds pitifully slow, but we pay more for them. The Computerworld article notes that in Japan, people pay about $30 per month for 50Mbit/sec. access. By way of contrast, in the U.S., we pay $20 for about 1Mbit/sec. service and $30 to $40 for about 4Mbit/sec. service.

As I’ve previously written, we also lag the world when it comes to broadband penetration as well. We’re a mediocre 24th in the world.

In addition from the last Pew Internet survey research I saw only 15% of Americans in 2006 got election news online as their “primary source” with 31% saying they used the Internet at all for the mid-term season. I’ve seen that touted as a great number but keep in mind we are the nation that INVENTED the Arpanet and e-mail back in the 1970’s. It is 2007 and only 31% of the people are paying attention to the politics forming online in even the slightest way which could be as simple as e-mailing a friend about the election.

Only 45% of homes have broadband and that is a number that is way up from 17% in 2002 and as stated the Internet they are using is REALLY SLOW compared to other nations.

The one big hope online campaigners could pin on this though is that only 60% of the population or so votes in a presidential election. So if that 15% is part of that 60% then that is great. IF however that 15% of primary source for the Internet is young people, that is not so good as only 50% of them vote.