-- Urban density is higher in many parts of Europe than in the U.S., so it's easier to wire up large numbers of people with a high-speed network.

-- Half the population of South Korea lives in dense apartment complexes, mostly in or near Seoul.

-- Most of the more affluent U.S. customers live in the suburbs. Internet service providers therefore offer lower-speed connections that they can deliver to these customers, without offering urban homes a higher-speed alternative.

There's also an apple-and-oranges mismatch between penetration, speed, and cost data from different countries. This can lead to disparities in prices and reported speeds:

-- Internet service providers in Europe and Japan overstate the speed of their networks in advertising more than do American ISP's. Yes, our ISPs and telcos actually lie less!