Akamai – Global Internet Download Speeds Average 3.6Mb as UK Top 9.1Mb

Akamai has today published its latest quarterly State of the Internet Q3 – 2013 report, which reveals that the world’s average Internet download speed is now 3.6Mbps (up 10% from 3.3Mbps in Q2-2013). Meanwhile the United Kingdom scored 9.1Mbps (up 8.9% from 8.4Mbps) but still fell from 10th to be ranked 14th fastest.

As usual it’s important to stress that Akamai’s statistics typically reflect the regional performance of their Content Delivery Network (CDN) and its connections with related ISP servers around the world, which means that the results should not be taken as a reliable reflection of real-world end-user connection speeds. For example, things like Traffic Management by your ISP and consumer package choice (i.e. slower speeds for a cheaper price) can all impact the results.

The reason that the UK has dropped down the table, despite continuing to improve our broadband performance, is simply because we didn’t improve as fast as everybody else. A quick look at the previous quarter’s results for Q2 2013 (here), which can then be compared with Q3 below, shows a noticeable boost in growth among the top countries (i.e. most are well above the UK’s +8.9% figure for Q3).

Overall the report found that 77% of broadband users in the United Kingdom experienced broadband download speeds of above 4Mbps (up from 75% in Q2-2013) and 27% were able to receive speeds of 10Mbps+ (up from 23%). However the country’s top peak speed fell slightly to 35.7Mbps from 37.1Mbps in Q2 2013.

We might not be up to South Korean standards but the situation is getting better. So, forgetting the top countries, how do we shape up alongside the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA)? Answer below.

The UK does quite well in Europe, especially against the likes of Space, Germany, France and Italy, but we continue to trail countries like Sweden and the Netherlands where true fibre optic connectivity is much more common. Thankfully the gap here isn’t as vast as it is between the UK and.. say.. South Korea at the top on 22.1Mbps.

Akamai’s State of the Internet Q3 2013 Report
http://www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/