text: how fast does electricity travel? consider  miles and miles long wire. estimated wrt speed of sound/ light in a real wire, the velocity is something less than the speed of light.  how much less depends on the permitivity and permiability of the medium that the wave is propagating through.  what you want to find out is the "velocity factor" or "velocity of propagation" of your wire.   as an example, standard rg6a coax cable has a velocity factor of 0.66, which means that electricity travels through it at 66% of the speed of light. here is a list with example velocities of propagation for different wire types http://www.nteinc.com/jovial/shortstop/voplist.html