South Korea continued to have the fastest average broadband speed in the world in Q1, while Singapore maintained its position as the country with the highest average peak connection speed, according to Akamai’s State of the Internet report.

Despite a 1.7 per cent year-on-year dip, South Korea maintained its position at the top of the table with an average connection speed of 28.6Mb/s in the opening quarter of 2017 (see chart below, click to enlarge).

Four of the top ten global leaders by average speed were located in Asia Pacific. Hong Kong was number four with an average speed of 21.9Mb/s, up 10 per cent from Q1 2016, while Singapore was seventh (rising 23 per cent to 20.3Mb/s) and Japan eighth (up 11 per cent to 20.2Mb/s).
Nine countries in the region posted gains of 40 per cent or higher, with Vietnam seeing the fastest year-on-year growth (89 per cent), followed by India (87 per cent) and China (78 per cent), the Akamai report showed.

All 15 surveyed countries in the Asia-Pacific region had average broadband speeds of more than 4Mb/s and eight in excess of 10Mb/s.

Despite strong year-on-year increases, the Philippines and India remained at the the bottom of the Asia-Pacific rankings, with connection speeds of 5.5Mb/s and 6.5Mb/s respectively.

Peak speeds
Asia swept the global top-five rankings in average peak broaband speeds, with Singapore remaining the global leader with a rating of 184.5Mb/s, nearly twice as fast as Sweden, which ranked in tenth place. Macau was second (132Mb/s), followed by Mongolia (131Mb/s), Hong Kong (129.5Mb/s) and South Korea (121Mb/s).

From a global perspective, the average broadband speed increased 15 per cent year-on-year to 7.2Mb/s, the report revealed. Norway was number two globally with an average speed of 23.5Mb/s, followed by Sweden on 22.5Mb/s.