New data shows increase in average Internet speeds, mobile data traffic

New data gathered by Akamai, published in its quarterly State of the Internet report for the first quarter of 2013, suggests that the global average connection speed has surpassed the 3Mbps mark for the first time. Added to that, the overall demand of the mobile world has increased so much that the results indicate the total data traffic has doubled in the last year.

The report revolved around the state of the global network connectivity as well as the connection speeds, broadband adoption and availability, and security. From the data gathered, it was seen that between the last quarter of 2012 and first quarter of 2013, the global average connection speed has risen 4 percent. While the earlier recorded connection speed stood at 2.9 Mbps, the current global average connection now stands at 3.1 Mbps. That is a record 17 percent increase if you look at year-on-year growth.

The report saw the firm listing 123 countries and regions that were seeing an increase in terms of average connection speeds from year to year. Some of the examples ranged from a 1.4 percent increase in Oman to a staggering 122 percent increase in Iraq. Out of the list, 117 countries or regions registered a significant increase in their average connection speeds in the past quarter.

New data suggest exponential increase in broadband connection speeds (Image credit: Akamai)

According to The Next Web, David Belson, the report’s editor, said, “This quarter’s State of the Internet Report shows continued positive growth in terms of Internet and broadband adoption worldwide. We have seen overall increases in average and peak connection speeds along with greater broadband penetration on both a quarterly and annual basis.”

In terms of global broadband adoption for speeds of 4Mbps and up, Akamai’s data has registered an increase of 5.8 percent in the last quarter. Currently, 46 percent of the globe seems to have adopted broadband. Additionally, global high broadband, which is rated as speeds of 10 Mbps and above, has now reached 13 percent of the globe, courtesy a 10 percent increase over the previous quarter.

The mobile data traffic has doubled from the last year

While the broadband growth is considerable, the focus of the report centered on the mobile platform. While using data collected by Ericsson, which gatheres data from over 180 countries as well as a customer base of more than 1,000 networks, the report indicated that the volume of mobile data traffic has also doubled from the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of this year. The data suggested that there was a 19 percent increase between the last quarter of 2012 to this year.

In the first quarter of 2013, the report indicated that average connection speeds on the observed mobile network operators ranged from speeds of 0.4 Mbps to as high as 8.6 Mbps. However, the report indicated that, globally, only nine operators were able to show average connection speeds in the high broadband category while 64 more operators were able to show results of average connection speeds above 1Mbps. All said and done, though, the overall increase is big. As the demand for the mobile platform increases, the mobile connection speeds will also be expected to increase.