Akamai on the Faster State of the Internet

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Global average internet speeds are on the increase, the Akamai Q1 2016 State of the Internet Report says-- specifically by 23% Y-o-Y (or 12% Q-o-Q) to 6.3Mbps.

Global internetPeak connection speeds are also accelerating (to 34.7Mbps, a 14% Y-o-Y increase), while 10, 15 and 25Mbps broadband adoption is growing "significantly." The reason? Sports, as aficionados all over the world demand the best for their viewing experience.

“Live sports will be at the forefront this summer as we prepare for the games in Brazil, with expectations that this year’s events will be watched by more online viewers than ever,” Akamai remarks. “Global connection speeds have more than doubled since the summer of 2012, which can help support higher quality video streaming for bigger audiences across even more connected devices and platforms.”

Unsurprisingly, S. Korea remains the nation with the fastest internet speeds of Q1 2016, with average connections clocking at 29Mbps. Following are two Nordic countries, Norway and Switzerland. As for other European nations in the Fastest Internet Top 10, the 5th and 6th places are taken Switzerland and Latvia respectively, while the 8th, 9th and 10th are occupied by the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Finland.

Interestingly Akamai notes Europe leads the way in IPv6 adoption-- 6 of the top 10 spots occupied Belgium, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Luxembourg and Estonia. On the other hand IPv4 is on the decline, with unique addresses using the protocol connecting to the Akamai Intelligent Platform dropping by 0.2%.

As for mobile connectivity, Akamai and partner Ericsson point out average mobile connection speeds range from a 27.9Mpbs high in the UK to a 2.2Mbps low in Algeria, while average mobile connection peaks range from 171Mpbs in Germany to 11.7Mpbs in Ghana. Android WebKit and Chrome Mobile account or 58% of traffic requests on cellular networks, followed by Apple Mobile Safari with 33% of requests.

Go Akamai State of the Internet Q1 2016