The USA is far behind other industrialized states in internet access speeds and the government must intervene if the country has any hopes of catching up, according to a report commissioned by the Communications Workers of America, writes USA Today.

The median US download speed is 1.97 megabits per second (mbps) - compared with 61 mbps in Japan, 45 mbps in South Korea, 17 mbps in France and 7 mbps in Canada, for example.

The Federal Communications Commission defines “high speed” as 200 kilobits per second (kbps) - a standard determined more than a decade ago, and now not even recognized as broadband in most countries.