In the seven years that Akamai has been releasing its State of the Internet reports, the average connection speed has always increased. This shows no sign of slowing, based on data gathered from Akamai’s Intelligent Platform, which it says handles approximately two trillion daily requests, from what it predicts is well over a billion web users.
In the internet ratings and broadband speed findings, Akamai reports that the global average speed remained at 4.5Mbps, while the global peak connection speed average grew 8.4% to 26.9Mbps. The global average speed increasing by 20% year-on-year, despite the negligible 0.7% Q4 growth.
South Korea retains the highest average connection speed, despite its 12% decline in the quarter to 22.2Mbps, and Hong Kong still has the highest peak connection speed, with 87.7Mbps. The USA came in 16th position, with its average speed clocked at 11.1Mbps and an average peak speed of 49.9Mbps. The UK won 18th place, with a 10.7Mbps average and 46.3Mbps average peak speed.
Every country in the top 10 list for average connection speed surpassed the 10Mbps high broadband threshold, and Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea (the top 3) all clocked in above the 4K-ready threshold. Eight countries in the top 10 saw double-digit year-on-year growth.
The proportion on connections that fell into the High Broadband bracket (higher than 10Mbps) grew 2.9% in the quarter to 24%, with South Korea having the highest penetration percentage at 79%. Akamai reports that the number of 4K-ready connections grew minimally to 12%, with South Korea leading the way in national penetration at 61%.
For regular broadband (at least 4Mbps), the global adoption rate shrank very slightly to 59%. Bulgaria overtook South Korea to take the crown for highest penetration, with 96% of its connections passing the mark.
On the mobile side of things, the national average connection speeds ranged from a high of 16Mbps in the UK down to a low of just 1Mbps in New Caledonia. The average peak mobile connection speeds were up significantly, ranging from 157.3Mbps in Singapore, down to 7.5Mbps in Argentina. Akamai notes that Ericsson data says the volume of mobile data traffic grew 11% in the quarter.
In terms of end devices on the cellular networks, Apple Mobile Safari accounted for just under 36% of requests, while Android Webkit and Chrome for Mobile (the new default Android browser engine) stood at 25% and 13% respectively – for a total 38%. On all mobile networks (which includes WiFi), Apple’s Mobile Safari accounted for 48% of requests, down 2 points in the quarter, with Android and Chrome at 27% and 12% respectively.
Akamai says that it saw a 1.5% growth in the number of unique IPv4 addresses in the quarter, growing to just under 803 million. Belgium still leads the globe in IPv6 adoption, with 32% of its total connections to Akamai in the quarter using an IPv6 address.
In the top 10 countries for total unique IPv4 addresses, only first-placed USA saw a quarterly decline. The US held some 151 million IPv4 addresses, with second-place China accounting for 125 million. For IPv6, the only non-EU countries in the top 10 were the USA and Peru – with Norway pushing France out of the list thanks to its 88% quarterly growth.
Notably, 62% of Verizon Wireless’ total requests to Akamai were from IPv6 addresses, with Comcast Cable at 29%, AT&T at 20% and TWC further off the pace at 12%. Belgium’s Brutele scored nearly the same IPv6 ratio as Verizon, and the next highest rating came from fellow Belgian operator Telenet – with 49%.
In Q4 2014, Akamai reports that China remained the top source for IP addresses associated with cyber-attacks, although its share dropped from 49% last quarter to 41% this quarter. Second placed USA dropped to 13% of total attack traffic from 17% in Q3.
Akamai customers reported 327 DDoS attacks, a number that increased by 57 from Q3 – with a little more than half of the attacks targeting customers in the Americas, with nearly twice as many victims in Asia Pacific as in EMEA. However, the number of total DDoS attacks in the year was largely unchanged.
Akamai’s acquisition of Prolexic saw it roll the latter’s security reporting into the Akamai report, but that section will now be spun out into a separate document, starting next quarter. Akamai also notes that the FCC’s decision to redefine a broadband connection as one above 25Mbps has led the company to begin reviewing how it defines the metrics it includes.