Australia's average internet speed now 4.7Mbps
While average connection speeds are up 31 per cent year on year, Australia still ranks 41st in the world, according to Akamai.
Content delivery company Akamai has delivered its quarterly "State of the Internet" report, with Australia's growth in speeds lagging behind the global average, quarter on quarter (QoQ).
According to the report, Australia's average connection speed for Q1 2013 was 4665Kbps, up 2.1 per cent from Q4 2012. Globally, the average speed rose to 3.1Mbps, a 4 per cent increase.
In terms of average peak internet speeds, Australia managed 26.3Mbps, up 9.3 per cent QoQ. The global average is now 18.4Mbps.
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While these gains seem incremental when viewed quarter on quarter, they represent a significant boost Year on Year. Average connection speed is up 31 per cent from Q1 2012, and average peak saw a 58 per cent increase in the same time frame.
When taken against the rest of the world in terms of ranking, however, Australia is a little less impressive. Our average connection speed puts us at 41st in the world, while our average peak speed comes in at number 37.
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South Korea is the world's leader in average connection speed, topping out at 14.2Mbps. Hong Kong scored the highest peak connection speed of 63.6Mbps.
It's also worth noting that these gains still put us behind our scores for Q4 2011, which saw our average connection speed reach nearly 5.5Mbps and our average peak speed reach over 30Mbps.
In terms of access to high-speed internet, Akamai's report says that 4.8 per cent of Australians now have access to internet with speeds of 10Mbps or above, up 0.8 per cent from last quarter.
While Australia is definitely on the up, it's obvious that we still lag behind other developed countries in terms of speeds and broadband penetration.
As ever, this bodes poorly for the increasing adoption of streaming video entertainment services (particularly Ultra HD video), the continuing push for businesses to move to cloud services and digital delivery of gaming on the upcoming next-generation consoles.