Average internet speeds grow 12% during Q1

Global average internet connection speeds grew 12% sequentially during the first quarter to 6.3Mbps, according to Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report.

The report aslso shows that the global average peak connection speed increased 6.8% to 34.7 Mbps over the same period.

Global broadband adoption of 10Mbps, 15Mbps, and 25Mbps connections also grew significantly during the quarter, posting year-over-year gains of 10%, 14%, and 19% at each threshold, respectively.

Meanwhile, average mobile connection speeds ranged from a high of 27.9Mbps in the United Kingdom to a low of 2.2Mbps in Algeria during the period, while average peak mobile connection speeds ranged from 171.6Mbps in Germany to 11.7Mbps in Ghana.

“What this means,” said Rob Morton, Director of Public Relations, Akamai Technologies, in a video message, “is that more people around the world can take advantage of video streaming with higher bit rates, resulting in a better quality viewing experience.”

David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report, said the expectation is that this summer’s biggest sporting events will be watched by more online viewers than ever.

“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,” he affirmed.

The report noted that at the country level, South Korea continued to have the highest average connection speed in the world at 29.0Mbps, an 8.6% gain over the fourth quarter of 2015, while Singapore maintained its position as the country with the highest average peak connection speed at 146.9Mbps, an 8.3% quarterly increase.

It said South Korea also led the world across the 10Mbps, 15Mbps, and 25Mbps broadband tiers once again, with adoption rates of 84%, 69%, and 42% respectively, after seeing robust quarterly gains across all three metrics.