Global Connectivity Speeds Faster Than a Year Ago

January 24, 2013 by Douglas A. McIntyre

global network conceptAkamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) issued its third-quarter report on connectivity. Not surprisingly, connection speeds on average have risen compared to the same period as last year:

The global average connection speed decreased by approximately seven percent between the second and third quarters of 2012 to 2.8 Mbps. South Korea continued to have the highest average connection speed at 14.7 Mbps. Japan (10.7 Mbps) and Hong Kong (8.9 Mbps) rounded out the top three countries for average connection speed in the quarter.

Despite the slight quarter-over-quarter decline, global average connection speed enjoyed healthy 11 percent growth year over year.

Similar to the average connection speed metric, the global average peak connection speed also saw a minor quarter-over-quarter decline, dropping 1.4 percent to 15.9 Mbps. In the third quarter of 2012, Hong Kong boasted the highest peak connection speed at just more than 54 Mbps.

Looking at year-over-year changes, significant improvement was once again seen in the global average peak connection speed, growing 36 percent.

Akamai observed global broadband (>4 Mbps) and high broadband (>10 Mbps) adoption showing solid gains in the quarter. The global high broadband adoption rate grew by 8.8 percent quarter over quarter, reaching 11 percent, while the global broadband adoption rate increased 4.8 percent, growing to 41 percent.

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