UPD Average World Internet Speeds Fall to 4.5Mbps vs 10.7Mbps in UK Q3 2014

Akamai’s latest globally focused ‘State of the Internet Q3-2014’ report has claimed that average world broadband Internet download speeds suffered a mild decrease of -2.8% in Q3 to hit 4.5Mbps. Similarly the UK saw its performance drop by -3.4% in the quarter to touch 10.7Mbps, making us the 19th fastest country (down sharply from 16th in Q2 and 15th in Q1).

Focusing on the United Kingdom, Akamai’s Q3-2014 report found that the results were broadly unchanged from the previous Q2 study. In other words, 81% of broadband users experienced Internet download speeds of 4Mbps+ and 36% were able to receive 10Mbps+. Sadly the proportion able to get speeds of 15Mbps+ fell slightly from 21% in Q2 to 20% in Q3, although our peak download speeds edged upwards a little from 46.6Mbps in Q2 to 46.8Mbps in Q3.

It’s unclear why there was a decline in performance during the third quarter of last year, although it’s worth remembering that the year-over-year changes were much more positive. For example, average global speeds have improved by 25% over the past 12 months and the United Kingdom saw a 17% increase over the same period. Now compare all of that with the top 10 countries.

The results for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region also allow us to see how the United Kingdom stacks up against countries like Germany, France, Spain and Italy among others. The UK, at least in terms of the largest EU economies, appears to fair quite a bit better. But we’re still behind some of the Nordic states.

Akamai’s report also includes data for Mobile Broadband (3G and 4G) performance, which finds that the average download speed in the United Kingdom is a respectably good 8.1Mbps (up from 6.1Mbps in Q2) and we also delivered a peak speed of 51.0Mbps (up from 36.9Mbps in Q2). Overall 81% of mobile customers received data download speeds of above 4Mbps in the UK, which is up from 63% in Q2.

This actually puts us above most of the other countries covered in Akamai’s report, although average mobile data speeds in South Korea (18.2Mbps), Slovakia (10.9Mbps) and Singapore (9.1Mbps) still lead the pack. On the other hand we did jump quite a bit during Q3 and so we wouldn’t be surprised if our scores fall back down again for the next report (anomaly?).

As usual it’s important to remember that Akamai’s statistics reflect the regional performance of their Internet focused Content Delivery Network (CDN) and its connections with related ISPs around the world, which means that the results should not be taken as a reliable reflection of actual end-user connection speeds. On the other hand Akamai does carry around a quarter of all Internet traffic.

Akamai’s State of the Internet Q3 2014 Report
http://www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/

UPDATE 9th Jan 2015

A quick comment from urban fibre optic ISP Hyperoptic has arrived.

Dana Tobak, Managing Director of Hyperoptic, said:

“The Akamai State of the Internet Q3-2014 report is a wake-up call. The UK is now falling in its global broadband rankings and further behind the top ten despite having the biggest Internet economy of the G20.

The top performing countries are those that have invested in true Fibre-to-Home (FTTH) infrastructure – enabling them to provide 1 Gig connectivity – a decision that will reap long term rewards for their citizens and businesses who can take advantage of everything the Internet has to offer, and gain global advantage as a result. The fact is Fibre-to-Home is the gold standard for broadband; as understanding and adoption across the UK increases, so will our global ranking.”