Global broadband speed increases to 2.6Mbps: Akamai report

Broadband across the world is growing faster, what with increasingly sophisticated technology, better infrastructure, faster networks and increased competition. And it’s not just wired networks that are witnessing an increase in speed and bandwidth; wireless networks are growing as well, with the penetration of mobile platforms growing far beyond that of standard computing systems. According to Akamai’s Q1 2012 State of the Internet report, the speed of broadband connections is now at 2.6Mbps, a 25 percent rise vis-a-vis the same quarter last year.

According to the report, South Korea is at the top with an average connection speed of 15.7Mbps. Japan comes second with the average connection speed being 10.8Mbps, followed by Hong Kong (9.3Mbps), the Netherlands and Latvia (both at 8.8Mbps), Switzerland (8.1Mbps), Ireland (7.3Mbps), the Czech Republic and Belgium (both 7.1Mbps), and Finland (6.9Mbps).  The U.S. ranks 12^th at 6.7Mbps. India ranks 112^th on the list with an average connection speed of 1Mbps.

Global broadband speeds rising

Akamai gives special mention to the growth of the Internet, with 666 million new IP addresses from 238 countries and regions connecting to the Akamai Intelligent Platform in Q1 2012, a 14 percent increase over the same period last year. A report by Tech Crunch reads, “More growth is happening in smaller countries than in larger ones. In the wake of the global launch of IPv6, Akamai says that the number of unique IP addresses from the top 10 connecting countries was at 66 percent, but that this is down by about one percent on the quarter before. China, Brazil, Italy and Russia are all growing at rates of 20 percent”.

Internet attacks too have grown along with broadband. Akamai notes that cyber attacks are growing led by Asia Pacific, most notably by China, which is responsible for 42 percent of attack traffic in the Asia Pacific and 16 percent of all attack traffic. The US comes second with 11 percent of all attack traffic originating from its shores.

Mobile broadband is growing at a fast pace. Germany has the fastest mobile broadband at 6Mbps. About 65 carriers have speeds greater than 1Mbps across the world, and only three carriers analysed had connection speeds below 500Kbps. The TechCrunch report states that this means “carriers upgrading to mobile broadband seem to be doing it in a largely unified mass, with less speed fragmentation than we’re seeing in the area of fixed broadband”.