August 10, 2012

Akamai Report Redefines ‘Broadband,’ ‘High Broadband’

The latest edition of Akamai Technologies’ State of the Internet Report, which covers 1Q12, started out by redefining the terms "broadband" and "high broadband," with the revised definition of "broadband" now more in line with speed targets set out by the United States, China and the European Commission, it says.

“Broadband” connections now defined by the company as being 4 Mbps or greater, while “high broadband” now includes those connections to the Akamai Intelligent Platform at 10 Mbps or greater.

“Taking this new definition into consideration, global adoption of high broadband reached 10 percent, up 19 percent quarter over quarter,” the report says. “Among the top 10 countries for high broadband adoption, South Korea topped the list with 53 percent penetration. Japan (37 percent), Hong Kong (28 percent), Latvia (26 percent) and the Netherlands (24 percent) rounded out the top five.”

Here are more snippets from Akamai’s findings:

>> IPv6 Progress

Following the World IPv6 Launch in June, where a number of organizations permanently "turned on" IPv6 support for their Web sites, Akamai anticipates beginning to see a greater number of IPv6 connections. This also will be driven by providers rolling out native IPv6 connectivity to their subscribers and greater availability of popular content over IPv6.

>> Global Average and Peak Connection Speeds

When it comes to average connection speeds, all of the Top 10 countries experienced positive year-over-year changes in average connection speeds. Globally, a total of 125 countries experienced year-over-year increases, and only 10 countries that qualified for inclusion saw declines in connection speeds. The global average connection speed in the first quarter was 2.6 Mbps.

Once again, South Korea (15.7 Mbps) featured the fastest average connection speed. Countries/regions rounding out the Top 5 included Japan (10.9 Mbps), Hong Kong (9.3 Mbps), the Netherlands (8.8 Mbps) and Latvia (8.8 Mbps).

Year over year, the global average peak connection speed increased by 25 percent, and increases also were seen across all of the Top 10 countries. Globally, nearly 130 qualifying countries saw year-over-year increases in average connection speeds, ranging from 3.8 percent growth in Pakistan (to 5.9 Mbps) to a 213 percent jump in Libya (to 3.8 Mbps). Only five countries saw a yearly decline in average peak connection speed, with the greatest loss in Tanzania, which dropped 21 percent (to 5.1 Mbps).

In the first quarter, Hong Kong took the top spot for average peak connection speed (49.3 Mbps), dropping South Korea (47.8) to second place. The remaining top 5 included Japan (39.5 Mbps), Romania (38.8 Mbps) and Latvia (33.5 Mbps).

>> Mobile Connection Speeds

In 1Q12, Akamai found that a mobile provider in Germany delivered the fastest average connection speed at slightly slower than 6 Mbps. Of all mobile operators tracked, five had an average connection speed faster than 4 Mbps, while 65 mobile operators had average connection speeds faster than 1 Mbps. Only three providers had average connection speeds slower than 500 Kbps.

When looking at peak connection speeds for the mobile providers worldwide for which Akamai analyzed data, a provider in Hong Kong offered the highest average peak connection speed of 32.2 Mbps. A German provider came in a close second at 31.2 Mbps. Overall, six mobile operators had average peak connection speeds faster than 20 Mbps – double the number of the previous quarter. Some 31 providers had average peak connection speeds faster than 10 Mbps, and all providers had average peak connection speeds faster than 2 Mbps.

To download the figures from the First Quarter, 2012 State of the Internet Report, 
click here.