Americans may have speed, but not consistency. there's 4 or 5 different types of net services available, yet...including dialup! yes, there are still dialup connections in the US. because they haven't run fibre optic cables out to the wilds of the northwest or Alaska yet.
also, for those people still on dialup, the server may be fifty miles away as the crow flies, but as the electron flies, it's probably going through thousands of miles of wire before it even gets there, then probably has to wait for a voice transmission to cease first.