The average broadband connection speed in Australia during the first quarter of this year was 11.1 Mbps - up 26% on last year.
Akamai’s State Of The Internet Q1 2017 Report indicates that while broadband speed in Australia saw a healthy increase, our friends across the ditch in New Zealand are leaving us in their virtual dust.
The Kiwis averaged 14.7 MBps during Q1 - a 40% increase year over year. New Zealand ranks 27th in the average speed stakes globally while Australian languishes in 50th position. On the bright side, we moved up a place from the previous report. One. Place.
Other countries ahead of Australia for average connection speed during Q1 included Thailand, Latvia, Romania and the Czech Republic.
Where Australia saw huge growth in Q1 was in relation to the percentage of 15 Mbps+ connections. 19% were in this category, representing growth of 90% over Q1 last year. 81% of Australian connections were 4 Mbps or faster and 35% were connecting at speeds of 10 Mbps or more.
An area where Australia leads is in terms of mobile connectivity and speed, which averaged 15.7 Mbps during the first quarter - the fastest mobile broadband in the Asia Pacific region.
Globally, average broadband connection speed in the first quarter was 7.2 Mbps; up 15% year over year. Average peak speeds increased 28% (44.6 Mbps).
The country with the highest average connection speed was South Korea at 28.6 Mbps and Singapore claimed the title of highest peak connection speed - an eye-popping 184.5 Mbps.
Other countries in the top ten for average connection speeds were:
- Norway 23.5 Mbps
- Sweden 22.5 Mbps
- Hong Kong 21.9 Mbps
- Switzerland 21.7 Mbps
- Finland 20.5 Mbps
- Singapore 20.3 Mbps
- Japan 20.2 Mbps
- Denmark 20.1 Mbps
- United States 18.7 Mbps
Worldwide 10 Mbps, 15 Mbps, and 25 Mbps broadband adoption all increased during Q1 by 9.0%, 11%, and 16%; with adoption levels of 45%, 28%, and 12% respectively.
“Increases in connection speeds and broadband penetration have helped enable the Internet to support levels of traffic that even just a few years ago would have been unimaginable,” said David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report.
Akamai's latest report can be downloaded here.
The report is based on data gathered across the Akamai Intelligent Platform, which the company says serves more than 2 trillion internet transactions daily.
