Global internet connection speeds increased 26% in Q4 2016 – but Australia was still behind in terms of average increase.
According to Akamai’s Fourth Quarter, 2016 State of the Internet Report, all key global broadband adoption metrics saw double-digit gains year over year.
“When Akamai first published the report in 2008, we defined ‘high broadband’ as 5 Mbps and above, which nine years ago had an adoption rate of 16% globally,” said the report’s editor, David Belson.
“We’re now seeing a 15 Mbps adoption rate of 25% worldwide.”
The latest report puts Australia’s average internet connection speed during Q4 at 10.1 Mbps. This represented an increase of 4.9% quarter-over-quarter and 24% year-over-year. According to Akamai, Australia ranked 51st in the world for average connection speeds for the period. This was another decrease in rankings – in the Q3 report Australia was 50th.
All Asia Pacific countries experienced speed gains (except South Korea) in the fourth quarter; ranging from Australia’s 4.9% to 36% in India. 7 APAC countries saw double digit quarterly gains.
While South Korea didn’t see any gains, in Q4 it again had the highest average connection speed globally – 26.1 Mbps.
With regard to speeds above 4 Mbps, 73% of Australia connections qualified – but on that indicator Australia was ranked 67th in the world, and the number of connections at this rate only grew 4.2% year-over-year.
Quarterly changes for 4Mbps+ were positive across all APAC countries, except for Australia which saw a 1.9% decline in 4 Mbps+ adoption.
In terms of 10 Mbps or higher adoption, this had reached 30% in Australia; which was year-on-year growth of 55% – but still the nation only managed to rank 50th. 15 Mbps+ broadband adoption in Australia stood at 16%, a 95% increase year-over-year.
Where Australia did stand out was in mobile broadband speeds – 13.8 Mbps; the highest average mobile connection speed in the Asia Pacific. This was also significantly higher than in the Americas. The fastest connection speeds were noted as being in the UK, with an average of 26.8 Mbps.
Akamai’s Fourth Quarter, 2016 State of the Internet Report can be downloaded in full here (registration required).
