Two-thirds of Americans Surf the Web at Less Than 10Mbps

[Turk]

by Jon Brodkin - Jan 29 2014, 9:21am AUSEST

Average speed improved in nearly every state (sorry, Ohio).

Despite Internet speed improvements in nearly every state, most US residents are still surfing the Web at less than 10Mbps, according to Akamai's latest State of the Internet Report.

Drawing data from Akamai's globally distributed network of servers, the report covering Q3 2013 put the US in 9th place worldwide in the proportion of residents with "high broadband," or at least 10Mbps average download speeds:

Regular broadband is defined as 4Mbps—75 percent of US connections hit that mark.

Akamai's data from its Internet content delivery network includes 158.5 million unique IP addresses in the US, and many millions more in countries around the world.

"The global average connection speed continued its upward trend in the third quarter of 2013, climbing 10 percent over the previous quarter to 3.6Mbps," Akamai said in a press release. "A total of 122 countries/regions that qualified for inclusion saw average connection speeds increase during the third quarter, with growth ranging from 0.5 percent in Namibia (to 1.1Mbps) to a 76 percent increase in Nepal (to 3.6Mbps)."

Akamai measured both the average speed of Internet connections and the average peak speed, which may not be representative of typical experience but is "more representative of Internet connection capacity."

"Global average peak connection speeds showed a slight decline in the third quarter of 2013, dropping 5.2 percent to 17.9Mbps," Akamai said. "Seven of the top 10 countries/regions saw increases in average peak connection speeds during the quarter, ranging from 0.5 percent in Hong Kong (to 65.4 Mbps) to 19 percent in South Korea (to 63.6 Mbps). Meanwhile, Romania, Latvia and Belgium saw declines of 4.4, 3.3, and 3.6 percent to 45.4, 43.1, and 38.5Mbps, respectively."

Average connection speed in the US was 9.8Mbps, while average peak speed was 37Mbps. Globally, just seven countries have average (not peak) speeds over 10Mbps.

Massachusetts, it turns out, is home both to the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox and the highest broadband speeds of any state in the US:

Massachusetts and New Jersey led the way in the percentage of residents with high broadband speeds:

There's good news for nearly all states, though. "Across the whole country, average connection speeds were up in all states but Ohio, which saw a surprisingly large 20 percent quarter-over-quarter decline to 7.5Mbps," Akamai said. Average peak connection speeds rose in 44 states.

Akamai analyzed mobile connection speeds separately. "Average connection speeds on surveyed mobile network operators during the third quarter of 2013 ranged from a high of 9.5Mbps to a low of 0.6Mbps, while average peak connection speeds ranged from 49.8Mbps to 2.4Mbps. Eighteen operators showed average connection speeds in the broadband (>4 Mbps) range," Akamai said.

The 9.5Mbps average was achieved by a Russian provider. In the US, four mobile carriers were measured at average speeds of 2.1Mbps to 8.4Mpbs, and average peak speeds of 6.3Mbps to 24.5Mbps. Akamai did not identify which carrier was which, listing them only as "US-1," "US-2," and so on. An Akamai spokesperson told Ars that "we aren't permitted to identify the carriers listed in the report."

Akamai also provided an update on IPv6 adoption and Internet attacks. Romania led the way in IPv6 adoption with 7.3 percent of traffic attributed to IPv6.

The US was fifth at 4.2 percent.

Regarding security, China was the leading source of traffic Akamai was able to identify as "attack traffic."

"China, which originated 35 percent of observed attacks, returned to the top spot this quarter after having been unseated by Indonesia in the second quarter," Akamai said. "Indonesia, meanwhile, dropped back to second place after originating 20 percent of observed attacks—slightly more than half of the volume seen in the second quarter. The United States remained in third place as it originated 11 percent of observed attacks during the third quarter, up from 6.9 percent in the previous quarter."
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/two-thirds-of-americans-surf-the-web-at-less-than-10mbps

[locoJoe]

I live in Ohio. I pay for a 15Mbps connection. I typically get a little more than that(about 18Mbps). Anyways I am all over the WWW and Usenet at the same time. Streaming this and DLing that, playing games - the kid is skyping with her girlfriends bla bla bla. All while me and my daughter both watch netflix(seperatly but at the same time on 2 devices). We have -ZERO- problems. My point is if it was JUST ME(1 person) 7-10 Mbps connection would be fine so why have a 50 or 100 Mbps or greater connection? Un;less you have a huge family or something going on out of the ordinary. I know it might shave a few minutes off a DL to have a 100Mbps connection but I usually have so many other things going on online that I never just sit and wait for my DLs to finish. Usually they have finished long before I am ready to f**k with them. Money doesnt grow on trees ya know? Bandwidth wasted = $$$ wasted.

Edited January 29, 2014 by locoJoe

[CODYQX4]

.

Edited April 28, 2019 by CODYQX4

[mike.mt]

Thanks for the info Turk.......

I agree with locoJoe too, that its pointless shelving out money to an ISP on bandwidth that is not required. If my understanding of Turk's post is correct, he's not knocking State side internet users connection speed choice, just displaying stats gathered from the report...

For users that require efficient VPN, FTP etc. services...Go for the best up / down bandwidth that suits your pocket & needs. :)

[jtmulc]

I have all of 3 Mbps :(

I have a whopping 1 Mbps, but it's free.

[Beamslider]

I have 25 Mbps down and 6 Mbps up; pretty much get that or a little above when running speed tests.....It is far more than I need by a long shot but what came with the cable package.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Beamslider