Growth In Global Connection Speeds, Mobile Broadband, Data Consumption

Akamai Technologies, the provider of cloud optimisation services, has released its 4th Quarter, 2010 State of the Internet report. Based on data gathered from the Akamai Internet Platform, the report provides insight into key global Internet statistics such as the world’s fastest and slowest regions for connection speed, the most frequent origins of attack traffic, and the highest-performing geographies for mobile connectivity, as well as resulting trends over time.

Highlights from Akamai’s quarterly report include the following:

Internet Penetration

In the fourth quarter of 2010, over 556 million unique IP addresses from 234 countries/regions connected to the Akamai Internet Platform. This represents 4.2% more IP addresses than connected in the third quarter of 2010, and over 20% more than in the same quarter a year ago.

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The top ten countries/regions accounted for nearly 70% of the total observed IP addresses, indicating that the majority of the world’s unique IP addresses are concentrated within a proportionally small number of geographies. The findings are in line with an October report from the International Telecommunications Union, which identified that while 71% of the population in developed countries are online, only 21% of the population in developing countries are online.

Mobile Consumption & Connectivity

Mobile consumption and connectivity speeds continued to increase in the fourth quarter. Of the 105 mobile providers surveyed by Akamai, 62 experienced an increase in average data consumption delivered by Akamai over the prior quarter and 89 providers saw consumption increase year-over-year. Looking at average peak connection speeds amongst the 105 providers, yearly growth was generally strong, with average peak connection speeds more than doubling at over 30 providers, and with 96 total providers showing year-over-year growth.

Attack Traffic

While the list of countries/regions comprising the top five sources for attacks remained constant from the prior quarter, there was a clear shift in the rankings. Most notably, the United States dropped from second to fifth place, accounting for 7.3% of global observed attack traffic. Russia moved into first place, accounting for 10% of global observed attack traffic. In looking at attack traffic from just mobile network providers, Italy remained in the top spot, responsible for 30% of the observed attack traffic in the fourth quarter.

100 Fastest Cities Worldwide

In the fourth quarter of 2010, the report’s analysis of the top 100 fastest cities around the world, based on average connection speeds, reflected the following:

• Cities in Asia dominate the list, which includes 60 cities in Japan and 16 cities in South Korea

• Constanta, Romania remained the fastest city in Europe (#56 out of 100)

• Only 8 U.S. cities made the list, with Riverside, CA ranking as the fastest U.S. city (#77 out of 100)

World’s Slowest Countries/Regions

When looking at the world’s narrowband connections, which represent connections to Akamai at speeds slower than 256 Kbps, the global level of narrowband adoption increased modestly in the fourth quarter of 2010, ending the year at just below 4%. Mayotte remained the “slowest” country, registering 98-99% narrowband adoption throughout 2010. 60 countries/regions around the world recorded narrowband adoption levels below the global figure of 3.9% in the fourth quarter.