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Global Average Connection Speed Rises to 5.1Mbps, Finds Akamai

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The global average connection speed has risen to 5.1Mbps, notes Akamai's State of the Internet report for Q2 2015. That's a 3.5 percent increase over the previous quarter.

Akamai's report offers a detailed view of how connectivity is growing around the world. As usual, South Korea enjoys the world's fastest connection speed, with a 23.1Mbps average. Surprisingly, South Korea saw a 2.1 percent decrease from the previous quarter. The other top ten nations are Hong Kong, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, Latvia, Finland, and Czech Republic. Of those, Japan saw the biggest gain, growing by 7.8 percent. Last quarter's second-place country, Ireland, dropped to 22 this time, but that has to do with calculation changes at Akamai. The United States ranked 20th, with an average speed of 11.7Mbps.

Globally, 14 percent of unique IP addresses enjoyed an average connection speed of 15Mbps or greater, the standard threshold for 4K video. That figure is up 2.5 percent from the previous quarter.

In the United States, the District of Columbia now has the fastest average connection speed, with a 19.0Mbps average. It's followed by Delaware, Massachusetts, Utah, Rhode Island, Washington, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and New York. D.C. showed the greatest gain, with a 10 percent quarter-over-quarter increase. Alaska had the lowest average connection speed at 7.9Mbps. D.C. also leads in 15Mbps connections, with 39 percent of its connections above that level. Across the U.S., 21 percent of connections were above 15Mbps.

Akamai's data comes from the 2 trillion web content requests is processes each day. Full data is available on its State of the Internet web site. The report also looks at the number of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in use, and mobile connectivity rates.

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