F.Y.I.

Australia only 50th for internet connectivity

Australia is only the 50th fastest country in the world for internet connectivity according to a survey carried out by technology company Akamai.  

The  announcement:

• New Zealand ranks 42nd fastest country in the world, Australia ranks 50th

• Broadband adoption rates in Australia strong at 45 per cent in Q1 2010

• Canberra has fastest average and average maximum connection speeds in Australia

• Masan, South Korea takes spot for fastest city in the world

• Russia remains the top attack traffic source, followed by U.S. and China

• Majority of mobile providers achieve average maximum speeds greater than 2 Mbps

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimisation services, today announced the release of its 1st Quarter, 2010 State of the Internet report available for download at www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet. Leveraging information gathered from its global server network, the Akamai report provides insight into key Internet statistics such as broadband adoption, mobile connectivity, and attack traffic, as well as trends over time. New to the report this quarter is expanded information about mobile networks, as well as a review of average maximum connection speeds.

Highlights from Akamai’s quarterly report follow:

Australian statistics

Regionally in Australia, Queensland leads the way with average connection speeds of 2727 Kbps, boosting its ranking from third to first place. ACT ranks second for average connection speeds at 2673 Kbps, with South Australia and Victoria in third and fourth place respectively. New South Wales is ranked sixth, with average connection speeds as a region of only 2250 Kbps.

From the city perspective, Australia’s capital city, Canberra, continues to rank top of the field for average connection speeds, at 2674 Kbps. Brisbane, which ranked fourth in the fourth quarter 2009, moves to second place with average connection speeds of 2622 Kbps. Sydney slips from second place in the fourth quarter of 2009, to fifth place in the first quarter of 2010. Meanwhile Perth significantly improved its ranking from seventh to fourth place.

100 Fastest Cities Worldwide

Akamai once again examined the average measured connection speed of cities around the world. After applying ‘city size’ (at least 50,000 unique IP addresses connecting to Akamai) and ‘academic network’ filters to the data, last quarter’s top three cities – Berkeley, California; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Stanford, California – each disappeared from the top 100 list, with the prior quarter’s fourth-place city, Masan, South Korea, moving into the top spot. Reviewing the top 100 fastest cities around the world in the first quarter of 2010 reveals the following:

• Asia dominates the list, with over half (61) of the top cities in Japan

• Only 12 U.S. cities made the list, with more than half (7) of such cities being in California

• Umea, Sweden is the fastest city in Europe, ranking #18 out of 100

Global Average Maximum Connection Speeds

New to the State of the Internet report this quarter is a review of average maximum connection speeds.* In contrast to the average measured connection speed, the average maximum connection speed metric is more representative of the capability of many end-user Internet connections. In the first quarter of 2010, Akamai calculated an average maximum connection speed of 33 Mbps in South Korea, almost 3X the average connection speed within the country that has historically posted the globe’s highest speeds. Asia continues to lead this metric as well, with South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan taking the first three slots in the top 10 list. European countries took six of the remaining slots, all with average maximum connection speeds over 15 Mbps, while the U.S. placed eighth with an average maximum connection speed of 16 Mbps.

Also new to the State of the Internet report this quarter is a review of average maximum measured connection speeds at a city level. Asia also dominates this list, although more than a quarter of the cities in the top 100 are in the U.S. In Australia, Canberra dominated its rival regional capital cities and took top place.

Global Average Connection Speeds

Average speed increases among the top 10 countries were minor, with Hong Kong and Denmark remaining essentially flat, and Japan, the Netherlands, and Switzerland improving from last quarter by 3.5 per cent or less. Over the long term, year-over-year trends are generally positive, with seven of the top 10 countries having higher average connection speeds than during the same period a year ago. The U.S. ranked 16th globally, and Australia ranked 50th behind New Zealand in 42nd place.

During the first quarter, 96 countries had average connection speeds below 1 Mbps, a level consistent with the prior quarter. Akamai measured average connection speeds below 100 Kbps in five countries in the first quarter – up from three in the fourth quarter of 2009. The lowest average connection speed was once again in Mayotte, at 40 Kbps, even with the prior quarter.

Internet Connectivity

In the first quarter of 2010, over 487 million unique IP addresses from 233 countries/regions connected to the Akamai network – 7.2 per cent more unique IP addresses than in the fourth quarter of 2009, and 16 per cent more than in the same quarter a year ago. While the yearly change was roughly consistent with the level seen in the fourth quarter of 2009, the quarterly change was nearly 75 per cent higher than that seen in the fourth quarter, possibly indicating accelerated growth in Internet penetration levels.

Continuing the ongoing trend, the U.S. and China accounted for nearly 40 per cent of the observed IP addresses. In looking at the “long tail,” there were 184 countries/regions with fewer than one million unique IP addresses connecting to Akamai in the first quarter of 2010.

In terms of year-over-year increases in the number of unique IP addresses seen by Akamai, China is growing fastest, with a 30 per cent increase—more than double the growth seen in the U.S.

Mobile Connectivity

Average maximum connection speeds on mobile networks around the world were fairly strong, with 83 of the 109 mobile providers achieving maximum measured speeds greater than the 2 Mbps broadband threshold; 33 achieving maximum measured speeds greater than the 5 Mbps high broadband threshold; and six achieving maximum measured speeds greater than 10 Mbps. Average measured connection speeds ranged from 7.2 Mbps down to 105 Kbps. Coincidentally, both extremes were observed on mobile providers in Slovakia.

Attack Traffic

During the first quarter of 2010, Akamai observed attack traffic originating from 198 unique countries/regions. For the third consecutive quarter, Russia held the top spot originating 12 per cent of observed attack traffic. The U.S. remained in second place at 10 per cent, and China held steady in third place at 9.1 per cent, followed by Taiwan, Brazil and Italy, respectively.

About the Akamai State of the Internet report

Akamai’s unique level of visibility into the connection speeds of systems issuing requests to the Akamai network has created a one-of-a-kind view into broadband adoption around the globe. Leveraging that data, Akamai’s quarterly State of the Internet report identifies both the countries and U.S. states with the fastest and slowest average connection speeds exhibited by IP addresses originating from those respective geographies. To learn more, and to access the archive of past reports, please visit www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet.

To download the figures from the Q1 2010 State of the Internet, please visit:

http://wwwns.akamai.com/q110_apac_soti_figures.zip

About Akamai

Akamai® provides market-leading, cloud-based services for optimising Web and mobile content and applications, online HD video, and secure e-commerce. Combining highly-distributed, energy-efficient computing with intelligent software, Akamai’s global platform is transforming the cloud into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, transact and collaborate. Clients include Qantas, Ozsale.com.au, MCM Entertainment, SonyBMG and Aconex in Australia and New Zealand. To learn how the world’s leading enterprises are optimising their business in the cloud, please visit www.akamai.com and follow @Akamai_APAC and @Akamai on Twitter.

Source: Akamai press release

Australia is only the 50th fastest country in the world for internet connectivity according to a survey carried out by technology company Akamai.

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