Which Country Has The Fastest Internet, And How Does Australia Compare?



Akamai ranks countries based on their broadband speeds every quarter. In its latest report for Q1 2013, the top-ranking country has an average peak connection speed of 54.1Mb/s. Which country do you think that would be? Hint: Its the third time in a row to be in first place.

Did you guess South Korea? Close. The country that gave us “Gangnam Style” tops the list when it comes to average connection speeds, but the best average peak connection speeds are actually found in the city-state of Hong Kong. It was first to break the 50Mb/s threshold in Q3 2012, and at that speed you could download an entire feature film in just a few minutes.

Australia sits way, way lower down the list with an average peak speed of 22.8mb/s, which puts it at number 30. According to the latest report, average peak connection speeds went up by 5.3 per cent for an overall 41 per cent increase since this time last year, but average connection speeds in Australia dropped 2.5 per cent since last quarter to 4.3Mb/s.

Despite NBN Co supposedly having “commenced or completed” fibre network construction in 758,000 premises [PDF] earlier this month, Australia was only one of three countries to decline in high broadband (10Mb/s or greater) adoption, down 13 per cent since the previous quarter. Apparently, just 4.1 per cent of Australia has access to average connection speeds that are at or above 10Mb/s, which contrasts with South Korea and Hong Kong at 52 per cent and 27 per cent respectively.

According to the report, only 38 per cent of Australians have access to internet speeds at or above 4MB/s. If you compare that with Hong Kong’s 71 per cent adoption rate, or South Korea’s 86 per cent adoption rate, it’s clear that our speeds are still catching up to much of the first world, including countries in North America and Europe. Clearly, the the NBN hasn’t made much of a dent yet.

[Akamai via Bloomberg]