Akamai on broadband: A few surprises and a new (but useless) metric

[Commentary] Akamai’s most recent “State of the Internet” report is 60 pages of insightful data on broadband around the world. The report contains reiterations of many things we already knew (including that the US is not, in fact, falling behind), but also offers some surprising insights into IPv6 adoption and a completely new -- albeit somewhat useless -- metric. In terms of Internet speeds in different US states, Delaware ranks number one with an average peak (Akamai’s measure of broadband capacity) of 85.6 Mbps. If Delaware were a country, it would rank 3rd overall, behind Singapore and Hong Kong. In the overall global ranking, Singapore retains the lead with an average broadband capacity of 98.5 Mbps.

Because it’s not reasonable to compare small countries to big ones and urban countries with suburban ones, I like to compare the nations in the G7 with each other. While there are few surprises in Akamai’s speed rankings, IPv6 adoption rankings is a different ballgame. Belgium is the world leader in IPv6, followed by Germany and then the US. This is surprising since conventional wisdom says China – who didn’t even make the top 10 – is the biggest adopter. There may be a lot of IPv6 within China, but none of the external sensors see it. I expect the island nation will be the world’s first to break the 100 Mbps barrier. To sum up, global broadband speeds continue to rise at a rapid rate, especially in small, densely populated areas, and IPv6 is catching on, especially in the US and Western Europe. So there you have it folks, this is the State of the Internet.

[Richard Bennett was vice-chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)]