The United States is home to some of the world's most successful and innovative high-tech companies. Despite its techie pedigree, the U.S. doesn't have the fastest Internet speed in the world. It doesn't even crack the top 10.

Hong Kong has the fastest average peak speed at 63.6 megabits per second, more than three times the global average of 18.4 Mbps, according to the latest quarterly report from Akamai Technologies. Japan holds the No. 2 spot with an average peak speed of 50 Mbps, followed by Romania with 47.9 Mbps, South Korea with 44.8 Mbps and Latvia with 44.2 Mbps.

The quarterly report, which is based on information from January through March, ranks countries based on average peak connection speeds as well as stats on mobile connectivity and attack traffic.

The U.S. comes in at No. 11 with 36.6 Mbps, double the global average, according to the report. The average peak speed in the U.S. has steadily improved, increasing 11 percent from the previous quarter.

The average peak connection speed also grew over the previous quarter, increasing 9.2 percent to 18.4 Mbps. Globally, 130 regions and countries saw higher average peak connection speeds with increases ranging from 0.9 percent in Nicaragua to 13.3 Mbps to 55 percent in Ghana to 21.3 Mbps, the report says.

Long term trends are heartening as well with the global average peak connection speed up 36 percent from the same period last year. Countries that saw yearly declines include a 3.8 percent decline in Guatemala to 15.6 Mbps and 28 percent drop in Sudan to 6.1 Mbps, the report says.

The lowest average peak connection speed in the first quarter was recorded in Iran at 3.2 Mbps, a 7.1 percent drop from the same quarter last year.

The U.S. fared better in terms of high broadband adoption rates with one quarter of the country's connections above 10 megabits per second. South Korea took the top spot in that category with half of its connections at speeds above 10 Mbps. The global high broadband adoption rate grew to 13 percent above 10 Mbps, the report says.

Graphics: Akamai Technologies; Thumbnail: Flickr user RambergMediaImages



This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com