The U.S. broke into the global top ten with respect to average internet connection speeds in Q1, according to Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report.
The U.S. averaged 18.7 Mbps, putting it at No. 10 globally, up 22% year-on-year, and up 8.8% versus the previous quarter. In Akamai's report for Q4 2016, the U.S. averaged 17.2 Mbps, good for 14th at the time.
South Korea had the highest average connection speed in Q1, at 28.6 Mbps, followed by Norway (23.5 Mbps), Sweden (22.5 Mbps), Hong Kong (21.9 Mbps) and Switzerland (21.7 Mbps).
The global average for Q1 clocked in at 7.2 Mbps, up 15% year-on-year and 2.3% quarter-on-quarter.
Global average peak speeds hit 44.6 Mbps in Q1, up 28% YoY. Akamai said Singapore clocked in with the best average peak speed (184.5 Mbps), followed by Macao (132 Mbps), Mongolia (131.1 Mbps) Hong Kong (129.5 mbps) and South Korea 121 Mbps.
The U.S. was 16th in the peak average speed category, at 86.5 Mbps, up 28% versus the year-ago period.
Global adoption of speeds of at least 25 Mbps rose 42% to 12%. South Korea led with 40% adoption of 25 Mbps or more.
The U.S. was 10th, with 21% adoption of 25 Mbps-plus connections, up 65% YoY. Washington, D.C., held on to the top spot in the U.S. with 38% adoption in the category.
Notably, 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up are currently the speeds required to quality as “broadband,” in the eyes of the FCC.
On the mobile side, 32 countries/regions had an average mobile connection speed at or exceeding 10 Mbps, up from 30 in the previous quarter, Akamai said.
The U.S. averaged 10.7 Mbps for mobile, tops in its region, well down from the 26 Mbps average mobile connection speed seen in the U.K.
