Global Average Connection Speeds and Global Broadband Connectivity

For the second consecutive quarter, the global average connection speed remained above the 4 Mbps “broadband” threshold; however, it saw a slight decline in the third quarter of 2014, dropping 2.8 Pct to 4.5 Mbps.

Six of the top 10 countries saw increases in global average connection speeds, and all of the top 10 remained well above the 10 Mbps “high broadband” threshold. Among those increasing in average connection speed quarter-over-quarter, Singapore experienced the largest rise (12.2 Mbps), an 18 Pct improvement. The smallest growth was in Japan (15 Mbps), which was only up 0.8 Pctfrom the second quarter. In addition, Ireland (13.9 Mbps) joined Singapore in seeing an increase of 10 Pct or more from the previous quarter. Yearly increases were seen in 129 qualifying countries/regions, with rates ranging from 150 Pct in Jersey (9.7 Mbps) down to a modest 0.2 Pct in Ecuador (3.6 Mbps).

Similar to the average connection speed metric, the global average peak connection speed also saw a slight decline in the third quarter, dropping 2.3 Pct to 24.8 Mbps. Hong Kong once again had the highest average peak connection speed at 84.6 Mbps, followed closely by Singapore (83 Mbps). All 10 countries/regions saw significant increases in average peak connection speeds compared to the previous year. Uruguay (58.6 Mbps) led the group with a year-over-year change of 334 Pct, and Luxembourg (54.4 Mbps) saw speeds more than double, up 130%. A total of 135 qualifying countries/regions saw average peak connection speeds increase from the third quarter of 2013.
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