Average U.S. Broadband Connection Now 6.7 Mbps We're Improving, But We Remain Very, Very Average The latest quarterly Akamai State of the Internet Report (quick registration required, or see press release) shows that the average U.S. broadband speed was up 29% last quarter. The speed of average U.S. connection now at around 6.7 Mbps, thanks largely to continued deployment of faster DOCSIS 3.0 cable services. Globally the average broadband connection speed was 2.6 Mbps, with South Korea again at the top of the list with an average connection speed of 15.7 Mbps. In terms of cities, Hong Kong topped the list with an average connection speed of 49.3 Mbps. Ugly quality gaps persist here in the United States. Just 60% of the broadband connections in the United States are able to connect to the Internet at speeds faster than 4 Mbps. We're about fourteenth when it comes to global speed rankings, continuing our proud tradition of being utterly average in all global broadband rankings -- be they for price, speed, or penetration. As you might expect, things were slower on the wireless front, though service speeds continue to trend upward with HSPA+ and LTE deployments. Aside from one wireless carrier in Germany able to deliver average speeds of 6 Mbps, only five of all global carriers tracked by Akamai had an average connection speed of greater than 4 Mbps. 65 mobile operators had average connection speeds greater than 1 Mbps, while three providers had average connection speeds below 500 kbps. For this latest report, Akamai raised the bar on their definition of broadband, increasing it to 4 Mbps downstream from 2 Mbps downstream. The data used for the report was pulled via 666 million unique IP addresses from 238 countries connecting to the Akamai Intelligent Platform.
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  morboComplete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000 | Google Fiber will skew this data Google Fiber will skew this data significantly. Looking forward to the report that includes this data. | |
|  |  BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Re: Google Fiber will skew this data doubtful since KC makes up less than 1% of the US. | |
| | | JTR
join:2012-05-19
Carbondale, IL | Re: Google Fiber will skew this data It's actually 0.19% of the US, so yeah. | |
| | | | elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA | Re: Google Fiber will skew this data said by JTR:It's actually 0.19% of the US, so yeah.
And within that 0.19%, less than a third will actually pay the $70 a month for the 1Gbit tier. Most will take the "free" 5Mbit tier, while plenty more will flock to TWC or AT&T, where double/triple-play TV bundles *with ESPN* will be half of Google's price. | |
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| | morboComplete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000 | Read up on outliers and how they skew the mean. Even with only a small portion of the population, 1000Mbps in KC area will bump the mean about 2Mbps -- 30% spike. | |
| | | | JTR
join:2012-05-19
Carbondale, IL Reviews:
 ·Mediacom
| Re: Google Fiber will skew this data Let's assume EVERY person in KC (both cities) has 1gbps. That's roughly 610,000 people. There's 311,800,000 people in the USA. Math was never my strong point, but wouldn't you multiply 6.7 x 311190000 (2084973000), then 1000 x 610000 (610000000), add them together (2694973000), then divide by 311800000? So we'd be looking at... 8.6mbps average. A whopping 1.9mbps increase. Sure, it's a spike, but a tiny one (it doesn't change the data "significantly", and it's useless anyways because KC's combined population is only 0.19% of the US population).
There might be some holes in this because I should be using household figures instead of population figures, although I guess it's the same either way... I'm not sure. | |
| | | | | | | Re: Google Fiber will skew this data said by JTR:Let's assume EVERY person in KC (both cities) has 1gbps. That's roughly 610,000 people.
You actually need to look at the number of households instead of the number of people. Each individual in a household would not have a separate subscription to Google fiber. | |
| | | | | | JTR
join:2012-05-19
Carbondale, IL Reviews:
·Mediacom
| Re: Google Fiber will skew this data said by Rangersfan :said by JTR:Let's assume EVERY person in KC (both cities) has 1gbps. That's roughly 610,000 people.
You actually need to look at the number of households instead of the number of people. Each individual in a household would not have a separate subscription to Google fiber. Yep, here's the new calculations (which I believe now include large areas in both cities outside of areas served by Google, but unfortunately this is the best I can do). Surprisingly, Gfiber would actually make a larger dent than I expected in the national average (assuming that they can actually deliver 1Gbps).
2,403,054 households combined
114,235,996 households in the US
111,832,942 households in the US (excluding KC households)
I'll look at the following adoption percentages for 1Gbps: 20%, 30%, 50%, 70%.
20%
480,610 households with gigabit service
1,922,444 households in KC with non-gigabit service (we'll stick them at the national average of 6.7mbps)
480610000 + 12880374 + 749280711 = 1242771085
1242771085 / 114235996 = 11.1mbps
30%
720,916 households with gigabit service
1,682,138 households in KC with non-gigabit service (we'll stick them at the national average of 6.7mbps)
720916000 + 11270324 + 749280711 = 1481467035
1481467035 / 114235996 = 12.9mbps
50%
1,201,527 households with gigabit service
1,201,527 households in KC with non-gigabit service (we'll stick them at the national average of 6.7mbps)
1201527000 + 8050230 + 749280711 = 1958857941
1958857941 / 114235996 = 17.1mbps
70%
1,682,137 households with gigabit service
720,917 households in KC with non-gigabit service (we'll stick them at the national average of 6.7mbps)
1682137000 + 4830143 + 749280711 = 2436247854
2436247854 / 114235996 = 21mbps | |
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| | | It won't make a dent anymore than any other FTTH provider that offers 1Gbps has. Remember Chattanooga has had 1Gb for at least a year and it's done nothing for this BS report.
I know this will be tough news for many here to take but the over whelming majority of users in Kansas City are going to take the almost free 5/1 connection over the $70/mo 1Gig because for most people 5/1 will meet their need and they are going to look at price over performance.
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I do not, have not, and will not work for AT&T/Comcast/Verizon/Charter or similar sized company. | |
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| | Latency I'd rather have a 6.7Mbps connection that is 20-30ms away from the server than a 15Mbps connection that is 100ms or more away, any day. | |
| | | | | Core0000Premium
join:2008-05-04
Somerset, KY | Re: Latency As a gamer..I agree with you. It causes me a great deal of grief and frustration when playing games online. (xboxlive) Wish their was a remedy. | |
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| | | said by AnonFTW :I'd rather have a 6.7Mbps connection that is 20-30ms away from the server than a 15Mbps connection that is 100ms or more away, any day.
Move or discover a way to make light go faster. Gamers....  | |
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 Camelot OnePremium,MVM
join:2001-11-21
Greenwood, IN
kudos:1 | It is not the speed of the connection..... It is how you use it.
Yeah, as a country, we are that guy. | |
| | Reviews:
 ·Frontier Communi..
| Re: It is not the speed of the connection..... Laugh, but there is a kernel of truth to what you say. Once you get enough bandwidth (5 to 6mbit/s) to stream HD video the rest is purely gravy.
I was lucky enough to qualify for the 10 - 15mbit/s DSL package from Verizon before I moved in with my fiancee. I had 10mbit/s and change of bandwidth 24/7. At the new location my choices were 3mbit/s residential DSL, 5mbit/s cable, or 6mbit/s business DSL, I opted for the third option.
The loss of 4mbit/s sucks on paper but it hasn't really changed my internet experience in any quantifiable way. I can still stream HD videos. Webpages load just as snappy as they did before. My gaming hasn't been impacted in spite of the speed drop and change from fast path to interleaved. Large downloads would seem to take more time on paper but rare was the mirror site that I could find that would peg my 10mbit/s connection. Well seeded bittorrents could do it easily but outside of that I never found too many ftp/http mirrors that would peg the connection. Even CDN downloads like Windows Update usually top out at 3-4mbit/s in my experience, though YMMV of course. | |
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| | Wish I could be average I wish I could get half that or even a third as the best that is available in my area less than 10 miles outside a major city is Verizon DSL at 1Mbps. Thank you US government for allowing Verizon to have a monopoly to give me such poor speed for $24/month. | |
| | elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA | Re: Wish I could be average said by VerizonDSL :I wish I could get half that or even a third as the best that is available in my area less than 10 miles outside a major city is Verizon DSL at 1Mbps. Thank you US government for allowing Verizon to have a monopoly to give me such poor speed for $24/month.
Verizon does not have a state-sponsored monopoly on your service.
If you and your neighbors were willing to pay the freight, you would have a competing service available. But you aren't.
So you'll have to wait for LTE. | |
| | | tdar
join:2004-04-05
Satellite Beach, FL | Re: Wish I could be average said by elray:said by VerizonDSL :I wish I could get half that or even a third as the best that is available in my area less than 10 miles outside a major city is Verizon DSL at 1Mbps. Thank you US government for allowing Verizon to have a monopoly to give me such poor speed for $24/month.
Verizon does not have a state-sponsored monopoly on your service. If you and your neighbors were willing to pay the freight, you would have a competing service available. But you aren't. So you'll have to wait for LTE. Maybe. Or maybe Verizon has already used their large $$ monopoly and bought off his states legislators and taken that right away. Don't worry the cable monopolies helped them do it. | |
| | | | elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA | Re: Wish I could be average If legislators can be "bought off", as you suggest, then public interest / consumer groups would have no problem countering any corporate influence.
Verizon does not have a monopoly. Anywhere. | |
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| | If they're tracking unique ip's? Wouldn't that be what the people that they are tracking subscribe to? If that's the case then this is not an accurate representation of anything. | |
| kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL | Captain Obvious here..... DSL is getting left in the dust. Telco's need to start writing state reg's to ban cable upgrades in addition to muni-broadband competition.
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Jeff Howe
Jeff's Blog - »www.ostjournal.net | |
| | Core0000Premium
join:2008-05-04
Somerset, KY | Re: Captain Obvious here..... I see your from IL, but I seriously want to believe that was sarcasm.. it was right?  | |
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Kamus
join:2011-01-27
El Paso, TX | It's simple. The only way to get back on the exponential growth wagon so we can keep up with silicon valley is with the help of FTTH.
Which if you think about it is very sad for anyone that has FIOS. Since they have no excuse for having speeds that haven't increased that much since it was first introduced. | |
| Reviews:
·Time Warner Cable
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·voip.ms
| This is BS If you add the geographic land of the first 10 of all these countries they are probably no bigger than less than 10 states.
The US infrastructure cost would be 5-7 times higher than ALL of those combined.
Japan is only about the land mass of California.
That is why these reports are bogus, because let's face it the urban centers have great connectivity, the rural not so great.
And if the US wants to piss away USF which could have built fiber to every home many times over, then you have a story.
You can stream HD with a reliable 2-3 Mbps, so even if you are this rate you can have passable streaming access.
I have 25/25 because I need the upload for my work, and even I could get by w/ the 15/5 from Verizon without any real impact to my work, except uploads would take 5x longer. Since this is mostly background, who cares.
I remember back in the dial up days it may take 1-2 days to download a file a few meg in size. You started the download, and went and did something else. Yes this is not as productive but I would hazzard that over 6 MBps (with good ping) that can handle multiple streams today, so while average it satisfies 95% or more of the population.
Where the big fail and nobody talks about it is UPLOAD. If upload rates remain patethic, then this will reduce the utility of cloud-based apps that need to exchange data upstream. For instance, this may delay remote desktops or other innovations, cloud backup, etc... | |
| Reviews:
·Time Warner Cable
·Verizon FiOS
·voip.ms
| If you add the geographic land of the first 10 of all these countries they are probably no bigger than less than 10 states.
The US infrastructure cost would be 5-7 times higher than ALL of those combined.
Japan is only about the land mass of California.
That is why these reports are bogus, because let's face it the urban centers have great connectivity, the rural not so great.
And if the US wants to piss away USF which could have built fiber to every home many times over, then you have a story.
You can stream HD with a reliable 2-3 Mbps, so even if you are this rate you can have passable streaming access.
I have 25/25 because I need the upload for my work, and even I could get by w/ the 15/5 from Verizon without any real impact to my work, except uploads would take 5x longer. Since this is mostly background, who cares.
I remember back in the dial up days it may take 1-2 days to download a file a few meg in size. You started the download, and went and did something else. Yes this is not as productive but I would hazzard that over 6 MBps (with good ping) that can handle multiple streams today, so while average it satisfies 95% or more of the population.
Where the big fail and nobody talks about it is UPLOAD. If upload rates remain pathetic, then this will reduce the utility of cloud-based apps that need to exchange data upstream. For instance, this may delay remote desktops or other innovations, cloud backup, etc... | |
| | Reviews:
·Callcentric
| Re: This is BS Per Capita is where it counts. On paper we lead in everything under the sun; until you break it down per capita.
The reality still stands that places with a higher and lower population density have significantly faster speeds and often for a cheaper price.
The problem is that we are too arrogant and prideful to admit that our gut-feelings (opinions) about the private sector versus government are flawed and do not reflect the data or reality. | |
| | | Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | Re: This is BS said by Telco:Per Capita is where it counts. On paper we lead in everything under the sun; until you break it down per capita.
Only 17.7% of the US population is rural so we are clearly not doing as well as we could even in non-rural areas. | |
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| |  tshirtPremium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
kudos:3
·Comcast
| ... »www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/
and visually compare North America VS the rest of the world on two metrics average CONNECTION speed, and average PEAK speed.
When you consider the area and populations involved the US looks in pretty good shape, and rapidly improving. | |
| | | | I just got 23/22 to New Jersey and immediately after got 3/2 to California. I'm paying for 15/5. These tests are just random number generators. | |
|  DominokatHiPremium
join:2002-08-06
Boothbay, ME
kudos:2
·RoadRunner Cable
| In the past we expected to be better then the rest of the world. We had the drive and desire to do it. But now we will always be "just average" with everything from now on. The people of the US have been programmed to accept "average." We don't seem to care any more. (You can debate how) With few exceptions, there isn't much desire from companies or consumers to deliver or expect anything more then average. (More cost $$$$. Average cost less $$$$.) | |
| | | Akamai's State of the Internet Report has been and will always be bull shit. Why? Because it only accounts for what people SUBSCRIBE to not what the COULD subscribe to.
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I do not, have not, and will not work for AT&T/Comcast/Verizon/Charter or similar sized company. | |
| | | | Re: This story is still BS... said by battleop:Akamai's State of the Internet Report has been and will always be bull shit. Why? Because it only accounts for what people SUBSCRIBE to not what the COULD subscribe to. Yeah. I'd hate to see where the US would place should the report include what the people in S. Korea and Japan COULD get if they would pony up and buy the fastest tier offered. We'd really be wanting our 12th place back!
/M | |
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| | yet another failure for telecom to act in the public interest | |
| | | I wish I could get 6Mb. I am stuck on the 1.5 Frontier DSL deal. | |
| | MikePWV
join:2010-09-08
Martinsburg, WV | Re: Maybe one day! said by Majestica:I wish I could get 6Mb. I am stuck on the 1.5 Frontier DSL deal.
Comcast isn't out there in Hedgesville? | |
|
ineel
join:2011-08-12
Sacramento, CA | These increases probably have to do with Comcast upgrading people to faster tiers and AT&T forcing legacy DSL customers onto Uverse | |
| | | Admittedly, I didn't look deeper, but if we're 14th out of 238 nations, how would that be considered average?
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Jay: What the @#$% is the internet??? | |
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Re: Latency
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