Akamai: Average Web Speeds Up 14%, Peak Up 30%

Dec. 16, 2015
According to Akamai Technologies' (NASDAQ:AKAM) "Third Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report," global average Internet connection ...
According to Akamai Technologies' (NASDAQ:AKAM) "Third Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report," global average Internet connection speed increased 0.2% to 5.1 Mbps from the second quarter, amounting to a 14% increase year-over-year. After a 12% quarterly increase in the second quarter, the global average peak connection speed declined 0.9% to 32.2 Mbps in the third quarter, amounting to 30% year-over-year growth.

Globally, 5.2% of unique IP addresses connected to Akamai at average speeds of at least 25 Mbps, a 6.3% increase over the previous quarter. Year-over-year, global 25 Mbps adoption increased by 15%, in contrast to the 0.5% yearly decrease seen in the second quarter. In the United States, 10 states had 10% or more of unique IP addresses connected to Akamai at average speeds of at least 25 Mbps, with the District of Columbia holding the top spot at 22% adoption.

In other speed tiers, 15% of the unique global IP addresses connected to Akamai at average "4K-ready" connection speeds of 15 Mbps or above, up 5.3% from the second quarter. Year-over-year, the global 15 Mbps adoption rate grew 21%. In the third quarter of 2015, 27% of unique IP addresses across the world connected to Akamai at average speeds above 10 Mbps, an increase of 2.4% over the previous quarter. Year-over-year, this was a 19% increase. The global percentage of unique IP addresses connecting to Akamai that met the 4 Mbps broadband speed threshold increased 2.7% to 65%. Year-over-year growth was 9.8%.

The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is moving slowly - the number of connected IPv4 addresses was actually up in Q3 - but that's expected to change as IPv4 addresses become depleted.

"While we did observe an increase in the number of unique IPv4 addresses connecting to Akamai, the third quarter of 2015 saw the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for North America completely exhaust its available inventory of IPv4 address space," wrote David Belson, editor of the report. "The continued depletion of IPv4 space, in both North America and around the world, should further spur organizations to expand or accelerate their own IPv6 adoption, particularly as the cost of obtaining IPv4 address space may rise as scarcity increases."