I see that you are located in New York, That may explain things a little. They are a top market area, of course.
He is located in LA witch has big connectivity issues. There is a huge divide amongst ISPs there. Some are ghetto and some are great. Very spotty.
In my area Verizon tops out at 2Mbps connections. The top I can get is 6Mbps in my whole area including cable and dsl, and you have to plead with the ISP to get it.
I got a 4.5Mbps connection.