It's times like these that make me proud to live in America. A new survey ranks the US number 20 in household broadband use, just behind Estonia and the United Arab Emirates. Wait, is "proud" the right word?

We all know the US lags way behind in broadband penetration (a phrase that never fails to sound far dirtier than it is), but it's still a little disheartening to find exactly how far. The top 5, which consists of South Korea, Singapore, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Taiwan, are all over 80% penetration while the US struggles at only 60%. Hell, even Canada hit 76%, and they've got way more land and way fewer people. This will change, of course; Obama's pledged to increase broadband penetration, though at the moment he still has to fistfight his way through the legislature or whatever it is he needs to do to get anything passed. Still, it's nice to see Estonia get some good press for once. [Ars Technica]