U.S. 16th in Speed, 40th in Percentage of Users Above 4 Mbps According to the latest Akamai State of the Internet report, the average global downstream Internet speed jumped 20% to 4.5 Mbps. Globally, South Korea continues to log the fastest average downstream speeds at 22.2 Mbps, followed by Hong Kong (16.8 Mbps), Japan (15.2 Mbps), Sweden (14.6 Mbps) and Switzerland (14.5 Mbps). The United States ranks 16th in the world, averaging 11.1Mbps and 49.4Mbps peak. Canada was 20th, averaging 10.7Mbps and 46.3Mbps peak.

The report also tracks average downstream speeds by state with Virginia leading the charge at 17.7Mbps; followed by Delaware (16.4Mbps); DC (14.4Mbps), Massachusetts (14.2Mbps); Rhode Island (14.1Mbps); Utah (13.9Mbps); Washington State (13.3Mbps); Oregon (12.9Mbps); North Dakota (12.7Mbps) and New York State (12.6Mbps). Globally, Akamai states that 59% of Internet users have broadband connections of 4Mbps or above, an increase of 7.8% over this time last year. Bulgaria leads that metric with 96% of the population above 4 Mbps, followed by South Korea (95%), Switzerland (93%), Denmark (92%), and Israel (92%). At 74% of users hitting Akamai's network at speeds above 4 Mbps, the United States was ranked 40th, a metric that gets notably worse should you use the FCC's new 25 Mbps broadband definition threshold, something Akamai says they plan to consider moving forward. "Although the United States is just one country of many around the world working to improve Internet connectivity, in light of this update we will be reviewing how we define the metrics included in the report, as well how we present the data in future issues," David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report, said in a statement. Akamai's full report can be found Akamai's full report can be found here for those interested.







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Most recommended from 50 comments



maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 4 recommendations maartena Premium Member We've grown! In the past 2 years many providers have started offering tiers of 50 or 100 Mbps, and in some BIG markets like Los Angeles and New York TWC is now offering 50 Mbps as their LOWEST tier, and 300 Mbps as the highest. Those two metro areas (each around 18-20 Million people each in the larger metro area) cover around 10% of the population, and those two alone can drag up such a internet speed number.



They largely forget though that a big portion of the nation is still condemned to DSL. Although a big city like Baltimore has cable options, the telecommunication giant Verizon refuses to upgrade DSL there. And we're really NOT talking about the boonies here, we're talking about BALTIMORE, a rather large city.

TWC_User

join:2013-07-31

Los Angeles 3 recommendations TWC_User Member Average doesn't really matter... People who have super fast connections (Google Fiber, AT&T Gigapower, FiOS, etc.) are skewing up the average. What about the median? I would be more interested in that.

bockbock

@hcs.net 2 recommendations bockbock Anon Moving up Say what you want, but U.S. broadband has improved immensely over the past 10 years. We're still a work in progress though and still have a long ways to go. Let's not put that aside. There is always room for improvement. Now if only the price can come down. A lot of people can't afford FiOS or Comcast/AT&T.