Akamai Technologies releases ‘State of the Internet’ Report

Akamai Technologies has released ‘State of the Internet’ Report for the fourth quarter of 2013. The report provides insight into key global statistics such as network connectivity and connection speeds, attack traffic, broadband trends and availability, and IPv6 adoption.

Following are the key highlights from the report -

Global average and average peak connection speeds

The global average broadband connectivity speed continued to improve, with a quarterly increase of 5.5 per cent, reaching 3.8 Mbps in 2013.

Despite improvement in global average connectivity speed, half of the countries/regions listed among the top 10 in global average connectivity speeds (including the top four countries/regions) witnessed nominal decline in connectivity speed on quarter–over–quarter (q-o-q) basis. For example connectivity speed in Netherlands and Latvia declined by 0.7 per cent and 6.7 per cent, respectively. Even though South Korea witnessed a 1.1 per cent decline in average connectivity speed, South Korea held the top spot on q-o-q basis, reporting the highest average connectivity speed of 21.9 Mbps.

The quarterly increases in connectivity speed witnessed in Ireland and the United States from 8.4 per cent to 10.4 Mbps and from 2 per cent to 10 Mbps helped both countries achieve average connectivity speeds of 10 Mbps or more. This ensured that all of the top 10 countries/regions had average connectivity speeds at/above the high broadband threshold.

Overall, 133 qualifying countries/regions ended the year with higher average connectivity speeds over 2012.

According to Akamai Technologies, average broadband speed in India has increased by 31 per cent to 1.5 Mbps over the past one year but still continues to be the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region. In terms of broadband connectivity speed, India continues to lag behind other countries, including South Korea (21.9 Mbps), Hong Kong (12.2 Mbps), Taiwan (8.3 Mbps), Singapore (7.9 Mbps), Thailand (4.8 Mbps) and China (3.4 Mbps). However, India’s broadband adoption rate reached 3.6 per cent, witnessing a 97 per cent y-o-y growth.