Internet resources: Snapshot of global Internet speeds revealed

4 August 2010
Source: BBC

A report based on analysis of huge amounts of net traffic has revealed the state of the internet around the globe. The data, from network giant Akamai reveals the average global net speed is only 1.7Mbps (megabits per second) although some countries have made strides towards faster services. South Korea tops the speed league table of average net speed with its 12Mbps. In the top ten are also Hong Kong (9Mbps), Japan (7.8Mbps), Romania (6.3Mbps), Latvia (6.3Mbps), Sweden (6.1Mbps), Netherlands (5.9Mbps), Czech Republic (5.4Mbps), Denmark (5.3Mbps) and Switzerland (5.2Mbps). In the speed league table, the UK is ranked 27th with an average speed of 3.8Mbps.

Asia also dominates the list of fastest wired cities with more than half of the top 100 cities in Japan. Only 12 US cities make the list. Among European cities in the top 100 are Umea in Sweden, Baden-Baden in Germany, Wageningen in the Netherlands and Timisoara in Romania.

The report also looked at where so-called attack traffic, such as phishing and spam, originated. Russia topped this league table with 12% of such traffic, followed by the USA (10%) and China (9.1%).