Why Internet connections are fastest in South Korea

Editor's Note: Which 17 countries have faster Internet connections than the United States? See our Internet speed map.

(CNN) -- People in the United States basically invented the Internet. So U.S. connections must be the fastest and cheapest in the world, right?

Not so much.

Broadband Internet speeds in the United States are only about one-fourth as fast as those in South Korea, the world leader, according to the Internet monitoring firm Akamai.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/31/broadband.south.korea/?hpt=C2