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The FCC report released today on advertised broadband speeds praises Internet Service Providers like Verizon that are bridging the gap between how fast your Internet connection can be and what they actually deliver.

Fiber-to-home services scored top marks for averaging 114 percent of advertised download speeds during peak hours of congestion. Cable services met 93 percent of advertised speeds during the same hours, while DSL met 82 percent.

But the aggregate data in the FCC study on broadband speeds masks regional disparities.

A recent study of millions of broadband users by Pando Networks found that download speeds vary widely on a state-by-state basis.

The quickest: Rhode Island. Broadband users there average 894 KBps, three times as fast as the slowest, Idaho, which scored 318 KBps. 894 KBps works out to downloading one 5-minute, 30MB video in around 34 seconds. That’s not exactly blazingly fast.

The Pando data was also aggregated and relied on some business users as well as home users, whereas the FCC study focused solely on broadband speeds delivered to residences.

Some other interesting figures from the Pando study:
-The NE and Mid-Atlantic states contained 8 of the 10 fastest states
-The rural Midwest and Mountain-West states have 9 of the 10 slowest
-The neighborhood of Andover, a suburb of Boston, whose residents earn a median income of $114,000, enjoyed the top download speeds of any other in the U.S. at 2,801 KBps
-Pocatello, Idaho, with a median income of $34,000, scored the slowest downloads at 251 KBps

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Don’t know how to measure the speed of your Internet connection?

There are several speed test sites available, including, in no order of preference:
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
http://www.speedtest.net/
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/
http://www.my-speedtest.com/