Average Global Connection Speed Up 14% According to Akamai's 'Third Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report'

Data shows 4K readiness and broadband connectivity increased steadily in the third quarter of 2015

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Dec 16, 2015, 06:30 ET

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the global leader in content delivery network (CDN) services, today released its Third Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report. Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform™, the report provides insight into key global statistics such as connection speeds, broadband adoption metrics, notable Internet disruptions, IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 implementation.

Data and graphics from the Third Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report can be found on the Akamai State of the Internet site and through the Akamai State of the Internet app for iOS and Android devices. State of the Internet Report-related discussions are also taking place on the Akamai Community.

"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," noted David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet 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."

Highlights from Akamai's Third Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report:

Global Average Connection Speeds and Global Broadband Connectivity

Global average connection speed increased slightly (0.2%) to 5.1 Mbps from the second quarter, accounting for a 14% increase year-over-year.
South Korea had the top average connection speed at 20.5 Mbps, despite a year-over-year drop of 19% since the third quarter of 2014.
After a 12% quarterly increase in the second quarter, the global average peak connection speed declined a slight 0.9% to 32.2 Mbps in the third quarter. This accounts for 30% year-over-year growth.
Singapore (135.4 Mbps) and Macao (73.7 Mbps) saw double-digit quarterly gains at 25% and 18%, respectively. Singapore also retained its position as the country/region with the highest average peak connection speed.
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.
Three of the top 10 countries/regions – South Korea (24% adoption), Hong Kong (14% adoption), and Japan (13% adoption) – saw yearly declines, losing 37%, 15%, and 2.5%, respectively.
In the U.S., 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.
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%.
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.
15% percent 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% with seven of the top 10 countries/regions seeing gains ranging from 8.9% in Latvia (31% adoption) to 73% in Norway (37% adoption).

IPv4 and IPv6

Partially offsetting the second-quarter drop, the number of unique, worldwide IPv4 addresses connecting to Akamai increased by about 4.8 million in the third quarter.
The U.K. saw IPv4 counts hold steady, while the U.S. saw a small 0.5% decline from the second quarter.
On a global basis, close to 60% of the countries/regions saw a quarter-over-quarter increase in unique IPv4 address counts in the third quarter, compared with roughly half in the second quarter.
43 countries/regions saw IPv4 address counts grow 10% or more, while 27 saw counts decline 10% or more as compared with the previous quarter.
European countries continued to dominate the top 10 countries/regions, taking eight of the top 10 spots with the largest percentage of content requests made to Akamai over IPv6 in the third quarter of 2015.
Despite an 8.4% quarterly drop, Belgium again maintained a clear lead, with 35% of content requests being made over IPv6.
Verizon Wireless (72%) and Belgium's Telenet (53%) continued to lead as the two companies with more than half of their requests to Akamai made over IPv6.
Nine of the top 20 providers had at least one in four content requests to Akamai via IPv6, down from 11 in the second quarter. However, all of the top 20 – up from 17 in the previous quarter – had at least 10% of their requests to Akamai occur over IPv6.

Ask the Expert
State of the Internet Report editor David Belson will respond to "Ask the Expert" questions submitted via the Akamai Community Wednesday, December 16, through Friday, December 18.

About the Akamai State of the Internet Report
Each quarter, Akamai publishes a "State of the Internet" report. This report includes data gathered from across the Akamai Intelligent Platform about attack traffic, broadband adoption, mobile connectivity and other relevant topics concerning the Internet and its usage, as well as trends seen in this data over time. For additional information on the metrics in the report and how they are analyzed, please visit http://akamai.me/sotimetrics. To learn more and to access the archive of past reports, please visit http://www.stateoftheinternet.com/soti-reports. To download the figures from the Third Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report, please visit: http://wwwns.akamai.com/soti/soti_q315_figures.zip

About Akamai
As the global leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, Akamai makes the Internet fast, reliable and secure for its customers. The company's advanced web performance, mobile performance, cloud security and media delivery solutions are revolutionizing how businesses optimize consumer, enterprise and entertainment experiences for any device, anywhere. To learn how Akamai solutions and its team of Internet experts are helping businesses move faster forward, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter.