Bandwidth, broadband speed increase: Akamai

BANGALORE, INDIA: The growth in Interner subscriber number and devices connected to Internet is well supported by a steady growth in bandwidth and connection speed, finds hosting service provider Akamai.

Akamai in its latest "State of the Internet" report for the first quarter of 2011, finds that over 40 countries/regions saw average connection speeds increase by 10 per cent or more in the first quarter.

Also Read: At 897 Kbps India is #97 for avg connection speed

The report also shows a slight increase of five per cent in total IP addresses connected to their network from last quarter and an overall increase in 20 per cent from last year.

Akamai finds that the global broadband adoption continued to increase slightly, gaining two per cent from the end of 2010, to reach 62 per cent, in the first quarter of 2011, with Europe accounting for the nine of the top 10 slots among the countries with the highest levels of broadband adoption.

While Japanese cities Tokai, Shimotsuma, and Kanagawa topped the list of fastest cities in the first quarter, with average connection speeds of 13.2 Mbps, 12.9 Mbps, and 12.2 Mbps respectively, India is hopeful of touching 10 Mbps by 2014, once the proposed $13 billion national broadband network is constructed.

India intends to connect all cities, towns and villages with a population of more than 500 in two phases targeted for completion by 2012 and 2013.  The network would be capable of supporting connection speeds of up to 10 Mbps in 63 of the country’s metropolitan areas and larger cities by 2014, while speeds of up to 4 Mbps would be offered in 352 additional cities.

Global narrowband adoption

Akamai finds  that the global level of narrowband adoption declined nicely in the first quarter of 2011, with 3.3 per cent of all connections to Akamai at speeds below 256 kbps. This adoption level is 15 per cent lower than at the end of 2010 and 36 per cent lower than at the start of that

year.

Among the countries appearing in the top 10 in the first quarter of 2011, all but two saw quarterly declines. While India’s 0.1 per cent increase in narrowband adoption is notable, but not significant, the 252 per cent increase seen from Libya in the first quarter is certainly of concern.

However, Akamai believes that this jump could potentially be related to extreme congestion caused by the government-imposed multi-day Internet shutdowns, during which traffic into and out of the country was severely restricted.

The report adds that from a year-over-year perspective, only Indonesia and India saw increased levels of narrowband adoption, and the levels of growth are fairly significant for both countries.