I read a very interesting article about connection speeds across the globe yesterday. I believe that the faster the speeds, the more we enable innovation, learning and the economy. South Korea is certainly ahead in the race right now. This is worth a read for anyone that is interested in how the United States stacks up.
http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/11/12/real-connection-speeds-for-internet-users-across-the-world
Not sure how correct this data is. I just came back from Russia where i used internet while staying at my friends house. It seemed pretty fast to me(coming from my own Comcast 20mb/sec plan) so i decided to check the speed. It topped of at 995MB/sec. After the initial shock i asked my friend what he uses for internet provider. He said SibirTelecom and his plan is 1GB/sec-fiber optics, unlimited, and all his neighbours use the same plan. Just my 2c