Australia's average broadband speeds up, but global ranking down
While we may be performing better on the broadband front at home, the rest of the world is edging ahead.
Akamai's quarterly State of the Internet report is an often sobering look at Australia's broadband infrastructure compared to the rest of the world.
The report for Q4 2013 has few surprises, mostly painting a picture of Australia as a country that's slowly improving, but out of pace compared to the world stage.
Our average broadband speed is now 5.8Mbps, up 6 per cent from the last quarter and ranking us at 44th in world — one position down from the last quarter.
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Our peak speeds were up significantly — a 17 per cent increase from last quarter to hit 35.2Mbps. Again, though, our global ranking was down two positions to 32nd.
There's certainly some better news in the report, however. Nearly 10 per cent of Aussies now have access to "high broadband speeds", defined by Akamai as above 10Mbps. That's up 19 per cent from Q3 2013.
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Broadband penetration, defined as people having access to internet speeds of 4Mbps or above, is also up, now at 54 per cent of the Australian population.
Of course, it's always worth contrasting these results with the top ranks. Number one in average speeds is once again South Korea, boasting a blistering 21.9Mbps. Hong Kong leads the world in peak speeds at 68Mbps and South Korea tops both high speed broadband and overall broadband access. Ninety four per cent of the country can get speeds of 4Mbps or above, and 71 per cent actually get 10Mbps plus.