The global average connection speed in Q4 2015 increased 8.6% to 5.6 Mbps compared to Q3, according to Akamai’s State of the Internet Q4 2015 report, and although this isn’t even close to the FCC’s revised broadband definition of 25Mbps, it’s certainly another step in the right direction.
Following the FCC’s decision last year to change the definition of broadband from 4 Mbps to 25 Mbps download speed, still only a very small fraction of the US achieves this figure – Akamai shows that not one US state achieved an average speed of 25 Mbps or higher. However, the top 10 states for average speed have shown some quarterly growth in 25 Mbps broadband adoption. The global 25 Mbps broadband adoption rate in Q4 2015 has increased by 74% since the previous year.
Unsurprisingly, South Korea still has the world’s fastest average internet speed at 26.7 Mbps, up a significant 30% from the previous quarter. The top 10 is still dominated by Europe with Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Latvia, Switzerland, Finland, and Denmark all clocking up speeds of between 16.1 Mbps and 19.1 Mbps. Norway has seen the largest jump since Q4 2014, increasing 65% in one year, and Hong Kong was the only region in the top 10 to see a drop in speed since the previous year, decreasing by 0.4%.
Japan made a slight recovery after slipping down to 5th spot in Q3, by climbing back up to 4th place with an average speed of 17.4 Mbps, a quarterly increase of 16%. Denmark pushed the Czech Republic out of the top 10 with a 15% quarterly increase to 16.1 Mbps.
For anyone planning a trip abroad and is expecting to be able to browse the web quickly and easily, then Cameroon might be somewhere to avoid – the country had the world’s slowest broadband page load time of 7.2 seconds on average in Q4. Whereas Iran had the fastest page load times, at 1.2 seconds on average, followed by South Korea with a 1.5-second load time.
The US enjoyed an average increased speed of 14.2 Mbps in Q4, up from 12.6 Mbps in Q3, and the UK had a smaller jump from 13 Mbps to 13.9 Mbps. The top network providers by IPv6 request volume were AT&T and Comcast in the US both with 38% traffic, the highest percentage globally, followed by Net Servicos in Brazil with 14%. Sky in the UK had just 9.3% IPv6 traffic in Q4 2015.
The FCC clearly wants to use 25 Mbps as a target, but it cannot be used to define the broadband market, because firstly, no operator has had time to react to the FCC regulation change, and secondly, because LTE networks can also offer a headline speed of some 300 Mbps – so you would have to include all smartphones into the market equation. The only way to ignore LTE networks would be to define a fixed broadband line, or one that sustained that rate all of the time.
Throughout the US, the District of Columbia and Delaware once again had the highest average connection speeds, but Q4 2015 was a milestone for both states as they cracked the 20 Mbps mark for the first time – with Columbia at 21.3 Mbps and Delaware at 20.4 Mbps. Across all 51 states, 49 saw average connection speeds above the 10 Mbps threshold, compared to 44 in Q3 2015. Kentucky and Alaska still have the lowest speeds in the country, both at 9.8 Mbps, but saw quarterly increases of 13% and 15% respectively. All states saw double digital speed increase compared to Q4 2015, with the exception of Virginia which has experienced an average connection speed decrease of 3.1% in the past year.
In October, AT&T announced it was testing its fixed wireless local loop (WLL) technology with residents of Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, and Virginia as part of its work with the FCC Connect America fund – an initiative to bring broadband to underserved areas. The WLL technology is expected to enable Internet access in rural areas at speeds of 15 to 25 Mbps.
Results from a separate report in Q4, Sandvine’s Global Internet Phenomena Report, found that video and audio streaming over the internet accounted for over 70% of internet traffic in North America in peak hours. Netflix alone accounted for more traffic than every other popular streaming site combined, with 37.1% – up from 36.5% last year. YouTube came in second place with 17.1%, not even close to Netflix, followed by HTTP with 6%, Amazon Video 3.1%, iTunes 2.8%, BitTorrent 2.7%, Hulu 2.6%, and Facebook 2.5%.
Akamai said on mobile networks, the UK had the highest average connection speed in Q4 with 26.8 Mbps, followed by Spain in second place with 14 Mbps. Mobile network speed in the US is still far behind with an average of 4.8 Mbps during the quarter.