Average Internet Speeds Up, But U.S. Still Has Work to Do

Average global Internet connection speeds are up 14 percent from the same time period last year. That sounds like a pretty good increase on paper, but it's not actually all that spectacular once you realize just what it means for real-world speeds.

According to Akamai's State of the Internet report for the third quarter, the average worldwide Internet speed is a paltry 5.1 Mbps—DSL territory (for downloads, at least).

South Korea's 20.5 Mbps average Internet speed topped Akamai's list for the third quarter of the year, a figure nearly four times the worldwide average. The United States didn't even make it to Akamai's top 10 list, but it was certainly close with an average Internet speed of 12.6 Mbps (highest of any country in North or South America, at least).

"From a global perspective, the average connection speed increased 0.2 percent quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) and 14 percent year over year (YoY) to 5.1 Mbps, while the global average peak connection speed decreased 0.9 percent QoQ, but increased 30 percent YoY to 32.2 Mbps," reads Akamai's report.

Norway had the biggest year-to-year speed improvement of any country in the top 10 (an increase of 44 percent to an average of 16.4 Mbps), whereas South Korea had the biggest drop (19 percent).

In the United States, specifically, Akamai noted that 80 percent of Internet users had an average connection speed faster than 4 Mbps. Bump up to 10 Mbps, and the percent drops nearly to half (46 percent). Only one-fourth of the users Akamai analyzed had Internet speeds that were faster than 15 Mbps.

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Globally, around 65 percent of users have connections faster than 4 Mbps. Only one-fourth, or 27 percent, have connections faster than 10 Mbps (an increase of 19 percent compared to last year's figures), and 15 percent have Internet speeds faster than 15 Mbps.

Around 5.2 percent of the people Akamai analyzed worldwide have broadband speeds—using the United States' definition of "broadband," which is 25 Mbps or faster. That's an increase of 15 percent over last year. Additionally, every single country in the top 10 for broadband speeds has at least 10 percent of its measured population on broadband.