U.S. Moves Up in Worldwide Average Internet Speed Rankings

This week’s #broaddata comes from Akamai’s quarterly “State of the Internet Report.” The report reveals a 28 percent increase in average U.S. broadband speeds year over year, with a 2.3 percent bump during the 4th quarter of 2012. This pushes the U.S. into 8th place for fastest average broadband speeds worldwide, while U.S. average peak speeds have also increased to 31.5 Mbps. Perhaps even more telling is that eight U.S. states similar in size to South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan rank amongst the top three average broadband speeds in the world. In fact, most of the highly rated countries have much more in common geographically with these states that they do with the U.S. as a whole.

The sheer size of the U.S. makes delivering the Internet to every corner much more difficult than small geographies with clustered populations.  Even so, many small cable businesses are delivering fast Internet to the most remote parts of America. The steady and ongoing increases in U.S. broadband speeds will continue as cable operators and other providers offer faster tiers and more opportunities for ultra-fast connections.  The Akamai data is another indicator that the American model of private industry as the key driver of broadband development and Internet delivery is working.