United States Internet Speed is on the Decline
United States Internet Speed is on the Decline
According to Akamai’s Q3 State of the Internet report, the United States’ internet speed did not qualify for a place in the top ten list of countries with the fastest internet in the world, and its average overall speed has actually decreased by 2.4% year-over-year from 2008 to 2009.
The United States actually ranked 18th out of 203 nations tested in terms of average connection speeds, falling behind speed leaders like South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong.
When looked at from a global perspective, the results are quite positive. The report states:
“The global average connection speed is once again increasing, after an unusual drop in the second quarter. The average connection speed of 1.7 Mbps returns it to a level consistent with the first quarter of 2009. South Korea maintained its position as the country with the highest average connection speed, and was joined by Ireland as one of two countries in the top 10 posting quarterly gains of greater than 25% (on top of minor quarterly gains also seen in the second quarter). Romania, Sweden, and the Czech Republic all saw quarterly declines in their average connection speeds, though they all maintained positive yearly growth. While the United States saw a small quarterly gain in average connection speeds, increasing to 3.9 Mbps, from a year-over-year perspective, the trend is negative, though just slightly so.”
If you live in Delaware, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, or Utah you can be quite pleased with your region’s Q3 performance as they each increased upwards of 15% in average connection speed from Q2 measurements.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Akamai, the company serves as a distributed computing platform for companies worldwide. Their quarterly State of the Internet report analyzes data gathered from their global server network and covers security, internet penetration, mobile internet, average connection speeds and broadband connectivity.
Akamai released their quarterly State of the Internet report this week, along with this chart showing the fastest national networks in the world. From 2008 to 2009, on average, the world’s internet got 13% faster. America’s got 2.4% slower.
There are tons of interesting tidbits to be found in Akamai’s State of the Internet report for Q3 2009. This particular chart shows the 10 countries with the fastest internet in the world. It also shows that they’re not slowing down.
South Korea, already pumping at 14.6 Mbps, managed to improve 16% over last year. Ireland improved most dramatically of the top ten, improving their infrastructure to increase year over year speeds 73%.
But America, who has the 18th fastest internet in the world, slowed down ever so slightly to 3.9 Mbps in 2009. Though our nation as a whole didn’t get any faster, some individual areas showed significant improvement, including a 20% bump in Massachusettes and a 17% jump in D.C. and Utah.
If America’s megabit mediocrity depresses you, just be thankful you don’t live on the Island of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean: it was the slowest of the 203 nations tested.
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