Global Internet Speeds Declined According To Akamai

Akamai recently offered up its latest State of the Internet report that looks at the Internet all around the world. The report profiles the speed of Internet connections globally and charts any change for the good or the worse over each quarter. The latest report covers Q4 2011. The average Internet connection speed globally according to the report is 2.3 Mbps.

Interestingly the average Internet connection speed is down and average of 14% globally from the previous quarter. That means the latest report shows that Internet connections are getting slower not faster globally. Sadly, for those of us in the US, we ranked 13th on the list of fastest Internet speeds with an average of 5.8 Mbps in the US, which is a decline of 5.3% from the previous quarter.

The country with the fastest Internet connections is South Korea at an average of 17.5 Mbps. Japan was in the second place spot with an average of 9.1 Mbps. Hong Kong was number three. The Netherlands took fourth, and fifth place went to Latvia. It never ceases to amaze me that the United States is so far behind other countries in Internet connectivity speeds. It's unclear what exactly has driven the Internet connection speeds down. Depending on the connectivity tech, it could simply be an increase in the number of users.

[via TechCrunch]