Comparing Internet speeds around the globe
Let's take a look at Internet speeds around the world. Need super-fast Internet to download those gigabytes of puppy pictures you've been waiting for?
Internet speeds around the globe
Need super-fast Internet to download those gigabytes of puppy pictures you've been waiting for? Assuming you’re not in a Ting Internet town, you might want to take a trip to South Korea where the Internet's fastest. At least, that's what the latest edition of Akamai's quarterly State of the Internet briefing says. This report was recently released for Q2 2016; Akamai measures the average Internet speeds in countries around the world every 3 months. How does the Internet in your neck of the woods stack up? Just keep reading.
And the winners are...
South Korea was the clear leader last quarter, with an average connection speed of 27.0 megabits per second (Mbps). The other nine countries and territories in the top 10 were all clustered between 17 and 20 Mbps. In order, they were: Norway, Hong Kong, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Latvia, Singapore, Japan and Iceland. Measuring the average peak connection speed, however, tells a slightly different story. By this metric, Singapore came out on top at 157.3 peak Mbps. The next eight countries and territories are also in Asia: Hong Kong, South Korea, Bahrain, Qatar, Macao, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan. Romania rounded out the top 10, with an average of 84.2 peak Mbps. What's the single worst country if you need fast Internet? Venezuela, clocking in at an excruciatingly slow 1.8 average Mbps. Rounding out the bottom five are Paraguay (2.0 Mbps), Bolivia (2.4 Mbps), Namibia (2.4 Mbps) and Nigeria (2.9 Mbps).
Speeds in the U.S.
Meanwhile (just a few more stats, promise), the U.S. ranked 17th in the list of average connection speeds, at 15.3 Mbps. Within the U.S., Washington, D.C. had the highest average connection speed with 24.3 Mbps, while the next highest four states — Rhode Island, Delaware, Massachusetts and Utah — all had roughly 19 Mbps. Idaho brought up the rear of all 51 states and districts, connecting at an average speed of 10.2 Mbps. As a caveat, it's important to note that Akamai only surveyed countries with more than 25,000 unique IPv4 addresses and only gathered data from IPv4 addresses. As a result, countries like Luxembourg that are switching to high-speed broadband connectivity using IPv6 may be underrepresented in the report. So far, Belgium is the clear leader worldwide in IPv6 adoption, with 38 percent of Akamai connections using IPv6.
Why Internet speed is so important
At this point, you might be asking yourself, who cares? After all, your Internet was fast enough to download this article, so what's the use of stressing over a few megabytes per second? The answer is this: so many tech hubs around the world, from Silicon Valley to Tokyo, rely on Internet technologies in order to innovate. Growing industries like telemedicine (which provides medical advice and treatment to patients over the Internet) view advances in high-speed Internet with great interest. Now gigabit fiber Internet is bringing U.S. cities up to speed (1 gigabit per second) with other locations around the globe. Cities like Chattanooga and Kansas City have installed high-speed fiber networks, creating jobs and inviting a flurry of attention from tech companies and startups.
Ting Town, Westminster, MD
Take Westminster, for example, a city that is presently building its own fiber network, where residents and businesses are already experiencing gigabit download and upload speeds from Ting Internet. In the video presented below, Westminster’s City Council President, Dr. Robert Wack, explains how this new technology plays an important role in bringing new jobs and opportunities to their community. [embed-youtube id="pa8tTKjwNvI" show-related="no"] Here at Ting, we believe that crazy fast fiber Internet is about more than the right to claim the fastest Internet speeds around. We think of it as the next generation Internet to power the next generation of ideas. In order to compete on the world stage, it's essential for American municipalities to have Internet access on par with European and Asian cities. Providing fast, reliable Internet is a necessity in order to attract top talents and businesses. It's also a step toward job creation and economic growth, which is vital for both big cities and small towns.
