According to Akamai Technologies' (NASDAQ:AKAM) "First Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report," global Internet connection speeds got faster during the quarter, including both wired and mobile connections.
"We saw generally positive results across all of the key metrics during the first quarter of 2015," said David Belson, editor of the report. "The increase in global broadband speeds demonstrates an ongoing commitment to higher standards. While connectivity will continue to differ across many regions, we see the highest broadband speeds in countries/regions with high population densities and strong government backing or support, as well as those that foster competition among Internet providers."
Some highlights from the report:
In the first quarter of 2015, the global average connection speed for the first time reached 5 Mbps, a 10% increase over the previous quarter. Quarterly global average connection speeds among the top 10 countries all remained well above 10 Mbps, and six of the 10 had average speeds above 15 Mbps. Global average peak connection speeds increased 8.2% to 29.1 Mbps.
In mobile connectivity, the United Kingdom had the fastest average connection speed at 20.4 Mbps, a 28% increase from the previous quarter. Denmark was again in second place, at 10 Mbps. Vietnam had the lowest average connection speed, at 1.3 Mbps. Average peak mobile connection speeds again spanned a broad range in the first quarter, from 149.3 Mbps in Australia to 8.2 Mbps in Indonesia.
For the first time, the report covers the percentage of IP addresses connecting to Akamai at average speeds of above 25 Mbps, the new benchmark broadband speed adopted by the FCC in January. Globally, 4.6% of unique IP addresses connected to Akamai at average connection speeds of at least 25 Mbps, a 12% increase over the previous quarter.
Continuing with the trend seen in the fourth quarter of 2014, the number of unique IPv4 addresses worldwide connecting to Akamai grew by nearly 10 million in the first quarter. European countries continued to dominate the 10 countries/regions with the largest percentage of content requests made to Akamai over IPv6 in the first quarter of 2015.
