In Gigabit Availability California is the Top State, Chicago the Top Metro Area

MILPITAS, CA — The state of California leads the gigabit pack in the U.S. with more gigabit internet availability than any other state. In California, gigabit internet is available to over 8.5 million consumers. Although many of the most populous states make up the top ten states, there are some notable surprises. Colorado, with a population of just over 5.5 million, has gigabit internet available to an estimated 5.25 million of its inhabitants, making it the state with the most gigabit availability per head.

This data came from VIAVI Solutions' recently released report, "The State of US Gigabit Deployments," highlighting the regional and metropolitan breakdown of gigabit internet availability in the United States. The U.S. data is taken from VIAVI's global visual database, Gigabit Monitor, which tracks consumer gigabit internet availability across the world. The data refers only to download speeds.

The most gigabit-connected metropolitan area in the United States is Chicago, with over six million people having gigabit internet availability. This means that Chicago has more gigabit internet availability than many industrialized nations including Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Gigabit Internet Available to 18 Percent of U.S. Population
In terms of population coverage, the United States currently has gigabit internet available to more people than any other country – 57.5 million consumers, or 18 percent of the populace. The U.S. is followed by South Korea, Turkey then Canada. However, in terms of percentage of population coverage, the leaders are Singapore, South Korea, Moldova and Portugal with 95 percent, 93 percent, 90 percent and 64 percent of their populations covered respectively. The Gigabit Monitor is a web-based tool intended to showcase the state-of-play of Gigabit internet provision across the world, based on publicly available data. It is a living database that is updated regularly, based on deployment announcements and feedback from users.

Delivery Challenges
"While the overall picture of the United States' gigabit health is robust, such a jump in connectivity speed comes with significant delivery challenges," said Sameh Yamany, chief technology officer, VIAVI Solutions. "In particular, service and field technicians need to acquire more complex skills with additional training to be able to test and troubleshoot high-speed connectivity issues, and legacy test instruments can't even measure gigabit speed. Service providers need to take steps to ensure that their network testing and maintenance practices allow them to follow through on the gigabit promise."

VIAVI provides service providers globally with modular testing solutions that work across Wi-Fi, DSL, fiber, wireless and coaxial cable networks. Its testing units are designed to be easy for technicians to use, auto-detecting network configurations and providing pass/fail results and easy-to-read graphical interfaces. Network test results can be stored centrally by the service provider, saving time and money by giving a history of test results that can inform future maintenance.