Broadband Speeds Around The World

Broadband Speeds Around The World


If you have you ever wondered who has the world’s fastest internet, and whether speeds differ by country or by provider, the latest State of the Internet report from Akamai provides some answers, says Peter Lawson, marketing manager at iiNet, Australia’s second-largest DSL Internet provider. “Akamai,” he states, “gathers data from the Akamai Intelligent Platform and puts it all together in a handy report at the end of each quarter. The Akamai Intelligent Platform is made up of a distributed network of servers and intelligent software and delivers over two trillion interactions daily. It constantly monitors the Internet conditions to identify and block security threats, and provide optimization advice based on its extensive reach and data.

Lawson points out that according to Akamai’s latest report, in the third quarter of 2013 the global average connection speed increased 10% to 3.6 Mbps, while the global average peak connection speed decreased 5.2% to 17.9 Mbps.

The top 20 fastest Internet speeds according to average peak connection are:

1. Hong Kong, 65.4 Mbps

2. South Korea, 63.6 Mbps

3. Japan, 52 Mbps

4. Singapore, 50.1 Mbps

5. Israel, 47.7 Mbps

6. Romania, 45.4 Mbps

7. Latvia, 43.1 Mbps

8. Taiwan, 42.7 Mbps

9. Netherlands, 39.6 Mbps

10. Belgium, 38.5 Mbps

11. Switzerland, 38.4 Mbps

12. Bulgaria, 37 Mbps

13. United States, 37 Mbps

14. Kuwait, 36.4 Mbps

15. United Arab Emirates, 36 Mbps

16. Britain, 35.7 Mbps

17. Canada, 34.8 Mbps

18. Czech Republic, 34.8 Mbps

19. Macau, 34.4 Mbps

20. Sweden, 33.1 Mbps

Akamai provides a more detailed breakdown through the following infographics: Source: Akamai – The State of the Internet Report, Q3 2013 


Akamai Americas

Asia Pacific

Akamai Asia

Europe, Middle East & Africa

 Akamai Europe

A Different Take

However, Lawson and iiNet point out that there are other lists out there, and they don’t always agree with each other. For example data based on real-time global broadband and mobile data, collated by Ookla, another of the major global internet speed test providers, demonstrates that Hong Kong remains predominant with an average download speed of 72Mbps, but ranks Singapore at number two (compared to number four on Akamai’s list), with an average speed of 60.7 Mbps.

According to Ookla, Romania occupies the number three spot (number six for Akamai), averaging 57.4Mbps, with South Korea at number four (number two for Akamai), with an average download speed of 50.7 Mbps, and Japan fifth fastest (number three for Akamai), with an average speed of 41.3Mbps.

Lawson explains that the reason for the difference in the results is firstly because each list is based on different sources. Akamai uses information it collects from sources around the world that comprise the Akamai Intelligent Platform, whereas Ookla uses information from its own sources. Secondly, the Akamai test is based on average peak connection speeds, while Ookla uses average download speeds. This provides two different perspectives onto the differences in global internet connection speeds.

When we look at the slowest on this list, we can see the Democratic Republic of Congo has a less than impressive average download speed of 0.9Mbps, and Afghanistan is similar with an average speed of 1.07Mbps.

And Australia? According to Ookla, the average download speed in Australia is currently 14.2Mbps, with speeds varying across the country. The average download speed for Australia’s major cities is as follows:

Perth 9.8Mbps

Brisbane 13.5Mbps

Sydney 12.3Mbps

Canberra 16.5Mbps

Melbourne 12Mbps

Adelaide 11.5Mbps

Hobart 13.8Mbps.

This data puts Australia in 52nd place out of 189 countries. However, the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout promises much faster speeds – with five speed tiers available, ranging from Tier 1, with up to 12Mbps download and 1Mbps upload, all the way up to Tier 5, offering up to 100Mbps download and 40Mbps upload.

iiNet is Australia’s second largest DSL Internet Service Provider and the leading challenger in the telecommunications market. They maintain their own super-fast broadband network and support over 1.7 million broadband, telephony and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) services nationwide.

By Steve Prentice

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