The United States is 28th in terms of wireless broadband data speeds, according to the latest Akamai state of the internet report (pdf, hat tip ReCode). According to the data collected by the company, the United States average mobile broadband speed is now a not-entirely unrespectable 10.7 Mbps. But that speed pales in comparison to the top average speeds being seen in the UK (26 Mbps), Cyprus (24.2 Mbps), Germany (24.1 Mbps), and Finland (21.6 Mbps).

The report is quick to note that US carrier efforts to boost speeds via next-generation broadband aren't quite as cutting edge as carrier marketing departments might have you believe.

"On the lte-a front, Ooredoo Qatar announced the launch of its 4.5g service, with speeds up to 800 Mbps, for customers in Doha, the country’s capital," the report notes.

"Telstra rolled out its business gigabit lte service in Sydney, Australia, offering download speeds of nearly 1 Gbps and upload speeds of 150 Mbps. Singtel launched its 450 Mbps lte-a offering to all its 4g customers in Singapore, and announced plans to start rolling out 4x4 mimo technology that can deliver speeds up to 1 Gbps in 2018."

Many US carriers have promised that their own fifth generation (5G) broadband deployments should deliver theoretical speeds up to 1 Gbps as well, but serious deployment isn't expected until 2020 or so. Some of this lagging can be explained away by the United States' mammoth geography, though some of it can also be explained by what, until recently, has been fairly muted but theatrical competition between major carriers.

And while T-Mobile competition has improved some aspects of the US market, data consistently indicates that not only do US customers not see the same high speeds and low latency as their European counterparts, but they also pay more for mobile data than most developed nations.