Akamai today released their second ever "State of the Internet Report," (registration required) which covers a number of topics including broadband penetration, broadband speeds, security, and more. Of particular note was their measurement of speed, with the report examining not only the fastest countries, but the fastest States. According to Akamai, they consider anything 2Mbps or greater to be "broadband," with anything 5Mbps or greater to be "high broadband."

Akamai's 2 and 5Mbps watermarks clearly obliterate that of our own FCC, who, until recently, declared anything over 200kbps to be broadband (it has been an absolutely epic struggle to get them to change that to 768kbps). Still, the U.S. fares pretty well globally, coming in at sixth place overall, with 26% of connections surpassing 5Mbps (we're up from seventh place last May). We're ranked 15th worldwide in broadband density, with an average of 23.3 broadband subscribers per 100 residents.

More interesting perhaps is Akamai's rankings of the fastest (and slowest) U.S. States. According to Akamai, Delaware continues its reign as the fastest state in the union, with 66% of users hitting the Akamai network at speeds greater than 5Mbps. According to Akamai, seven states had less than 10% of their connections to Akamai occur at speeds greater than 5 Mbps, with Hawaii at the bottom of the list.