The World’s Internet Connectivity is Getting Faster

A new report emphasizes how quickly the rest of the world has caught up – and in many cases, surpassed – broadband speeds in the United States.

Released yesterday, Akamai’s latest "State of the Internet" contains metrics collected from its worldwide customers. Globally, the average connection speed jumped from 5.6 Mbps to 8.6 Mbps, a 23 percent increase from 2014.

Investment in digital infrastructure remains a major trend. South Korea, for example, has the world’s highest average Internet connection speed, with its citizens surfing the Web at 26.7 megabytes per second -- 20 percent faster than in 2014. 

Compared to such speeds, the U.S. fares poorly. Just 10 states had 14 percent or more unique IP addresses connect to Akamai at average speeds of at least 25 Mbps. The District of Columbia held the top spot – 25 percent of its connections reached the 25 Mbps threshold.