Of the 100 cities in the world with the fastest average Internet connection speed, 61 are in Asia, and only 12 in the U.S. The U.S. ranks eighth when it comes to average maximum speed – 16 Mbps – less than half the average maximum of first-place South Korea.
The data is from the first quarter of 2010, and was compiled by Akamai Technologies.
The city with the fastest Internet is Masan in South Korea. It is followed by dozens of cities in Japan, another handful in South Korea, and a few cities scattered across Romania, Germany, and Norway. The first North American city appearing on the list is Monterrey Park, Ca., which ranks 57th.
In the first quarter of 2010, Akamai calculated an average maximum connection speed of 33 Mbps in South Korea, almost 3X the average connection speed in that country. Asia continues to lead this metric as well, with South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan taking the first three slots in the top 10 list, Akamai said. European countries took six of the remaining slots, all with average maximum connection speeds over 15 Mbps. The U.S. placed eighth with an average maximum connection speed of 16 Mbps.
In contrast to the average measured connection speed, the average maximum connection speed metric is more representative of the capability of many end-user Internet connections, Akamai said.
In the U.S., on a state-by-state basis, the overall average connection speed for the U.S. was 4.7 Mbps. This was exceeded by 22 states. Delaware held its spot as the state with the fastest average connection, while Alaska continued to be the state with the lowest average connection speed, at 2.7 Mbps (up 30 percent year over year).
Average maximum connection speeds on mobile networks around the world were fairly strong, with 83 of the 109 mobile providers achieving maximum measured speeds greater than the 2 Mbps broadband threshold; 33 achieving maximum measured speeds greater than the 5 Mbps high broadband threshold; and six achieving maximum measured speeds greater than 10 Mbps. Average measured connection speeds ranged from 7.2 Mbps down to 105 Kbps. Coincidentally, both extremes were observed on mobile providers in Slovakia.
