Global Average Internet Speeds Top 6.3Mbps as UK Falls to 14.9Mbps

Akamai‘s latest Q3-2016 State of the Internet study finds that the average fixed line broadband download speed in the United Kingdom has fallen slightly from 15Mbps in Q2 to 14.9Mbps in Q3, which compares with a global speed of 6.3Mbps (up 2.3% from Q2). But the UK’s country ranking held at 20th.

It’s hard not to feel disappointed, particularly when looking back at the United Kingdom’s “progress” over the past three quarters of 2016 (below) that has seen precious little change in our performance scores. Luckily we’re not the only major country to suffer, with Germany’s average speeds (13.7Mbps) dropping by -2.5% in the quarter and others did something similar.

On the other hand Akamai’s monitoring cannot reflect the key aspect of network availability. For example, we know that “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) connections are estimated to cover around 91% of the UK, yet the majority of Internet users are still on cheaper and slower ADSL lines (i.e. most simply haven’t upgraded). Openreach (BT) are experimenting with a slower speed 18Mbps FTTC (VDSL2+) option that might help to bridge this gap, but that is still under trial (here).

On top of that Akamai’s figures are based on the performance of their global Content Delivery Network (this accounts for around 15-30% of all web traffic), which is an approach that often fails to accurately reflect actual end-user connection speeds. Never the less, when taken in the correct context, Akamai’s data can still be a useful measure to watch.

Admittedly the global average (6.3Mbps in Q1, 6.1Mbps in Q2 and now 6.3Mbps again in Q3) hasn’t exactly had the best year either, but then comparing the United Kingdom against a global average perhaps isn’t the best place for a more ambitious country to be looking.

Instead a quick glance at the Top 10 shows that we still have a fair mountain to climb. Many of the below listed countries have strong coverage of ultrafast pure fibre optic (FTTP/H) connections, although it’s worth pointing out that only one of the world’s largest 10 economics (Japan), measured by GDP, appears in the the table below.

It’s also useful to contrast the UK against other countries in Europe, which shows that we’re still holding just above the likes of major economics like Spain and Germany, while Italy and France are continuing to suffer a lot further down the list. On the other hand a lot of smaller EU states clearly seem to be running well ahead of us.

Just for a simple comparison, Germany’s country ranking (in terms of average speeds) has been as follows: Q1 = 25th, Q2 = 24th and Q3 = 26th. Meanwhile Spain’s rank has gone from Q1 = 30th, Q2 = 23rd to Q3 = 21st, which suggest that they’re likely to overtake us at some point in the future and that’s partly due to their rapid roll-out of FTTP/H.

As usual Akamai’s report also offers a glimpse into the 3G and 4G data performance of Mobile Network Operators (i.e. Mobile Broadband / 3G / 4G), which is one area where the United Kingdom appears to do better and indeed we’re the fastest country in Europe, with average mobile connection speeds of 23.7Mbps (up from 23.1Mbps in Q2).

Fastest Countries for Mobile Data by Region
• Americas: Canada, 8.9 Mbps
• Asia Pacific: Australia, 12.8 Mbps
• Europe: United Kingdom, 23.7 Mbps
• Middle East/Africa: United Arab Emirates, 13.3 Mbps

On the other hand even Akamai admits that its measurement of mobile connection speeds can be unreliable, not least due to the active use of proxies within many providers. Mobile connections are also by their very nature, mobile, and thus the quality of any given connection will vary depending upon your location, device and signal strength.

Suffice to say that we don’t cover the Mobile Connectivity aspect much due to the potential for misleading results.

Akamai’s State of the Internet Q3 2016 Report
http://www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/