Download Speeds

As most games are required to be downloaded I’ve heard that America’s broadband is pretty slow in some regions.
I just wondered if anyone has problems with downloading.

I usually get about 1GB per hour downloaded.

Just like anywhere in the world, depends on where you live. I get about 96 mbps or more. If you live way out in the boonies or in the mountains, internet will be slower. I'm sure those living in the countryside in England experience the same dilemma.

I am one of those who lives out in the boonies and my internet is horrid. It's certainly better than dial-up and my local ISP has customer service second to none. The problem isn't that I get less than 1 Mbps; it's that they throttle me back to about 165 Kbps after 65 MB of downloading. It's maddening...

You don't have to live out in the country to experience slow download speeds, throttled bandwidth, and cut-off downloads in the US. There's usually little if any choice in ISP so there's no motivation for any company to do a better job.

Service can vary with what part of town you're in, and how old the cables are.

Australia generally sucks - we are behind 50 other countries.
We have learned to live with it mainly because there isn't much choice

Yes its does depend on the size of your country, the land mass of the British Isles, for example, would fit twice in the State of Texas; but its true that there are still some isolated communities in the UK that have slow response times. I have a wireless fibre optics system that gives me around a download speed of around 44mpbs and an upload of 10mpbs which is perfectly adequate for me, both for work and personal use.
I don’t know anyone who uses the old phone internet system now; there was no choice when I first went onto the internet years ago. My first provider was Aol which to be truthful was horrible. I soon switched to a better choice.
Switching a provider is very simple in the UK; it doesn’t make sense to stick with one if there are better offers out there.

I think Jenny100 hit on the bulk of the problem here in the US... there isn't enough competition to offer better choices. Sometimes it's the small local ISPs that are stepping up to the plate. Where I am from up in NW Iowa, a local ISP laid fiber optic lines in many of the tiny little towns it serves - like 500 - 1,000 population. The also provide television and phone services. Although they are the only game in town, they keep their prices well within the reach of their customer base and have great customer service. One of the big conglomerates would have a hard time competing with them and they know it. Here in Missouri, we have monopolies in the small towns and cities, AT&T or Charter, neither with great reputations.

At least I'm not chained to a hot spot with a 5 GB data limit!