The average broadband speed in the U.S. sits at 7.4Mbps (for Q4 ’12).
A faster internet is the big obstacle controlled by the cable companies. But that is slowly changing, with the Google Fiber service. The new elephant in the room is Samsung’s announcement of 5G mobile. Both would offer connection speeds over 1 Gbps. That’s over 100 times faster than the current average. You could download an HD movie in seconds.