A new study by the University of Oxford in England and the University of Oviedo in Spain measured broadband speed and latency in some 66 countries and 240 cities, ranking countries on their ability to handle next-generation broadband applications and services and the quality of a nation's broadband connections. Mirroring the results of most other studies, South Korea and Japan take the top two spots, while the United States ranks fifteenth behind countries such as Lithuania, Denmark and the Netherlands.

The report claims top ranking countries saw "increasing investments in fiber and cable network upgrades, coupled with competition diversity, and supported by strong government vision and policy." Given many markets lack two or three of those, the country's ranking is once again not particularly surprising.

Sure, the United States is larger than many of these other countries, and providing broadband to rural customers is an obvious challenge. But the United States also fails to break the top twenty best cities for broadband, five of which are in Japan. You'd think there'd be at least one U.S. city able to bump either Vilnius, Lithuania or Kocise, Sweden out of the top twenty.

On the positive side, the United States has made some "significant, above average improvements" in infrastructure, according to the researchers. It's an obvious assumption that much of this improvement is courtesy of Verizon and Comcast's investment in fiber to the home and DOCSIS 3.0, respectively.

"The Broadband Quality Study shows us which countries have made real moves towards the Internet of the future," says Professor María Rosalía Vicente from the University of Oviedo. Of course as most of you are aware, the FCC is cooking up the United States' first ever national broadband plan, which will be unveiled in exactly 139 days.