Growing Internet penetration in India: Akamai

BANGALORE, INDIA: Akamai Technologies Inc. has released the third edition of its quarterly “State of the Internet” report.  Here are some insights on India:

* India ranked No. 20 in terms of number of observed IP addresses with 2.6 million connections. In Q3, the growth in IP addresses was 23 percent.
* In comparison, China had 38 million and Unites States had 109 million unique IPs, while being ranked at No. 2 and No. 1, respectively.
* India ranks a low No. 153 in terms of number of IP addresses per capita, with 2.3 unique IPs per thousand people.
* In comparison, China had 30 unique IPs per thousand people and United States had 360 unique IPs per thousand people, while being ranked at No. 94 and No. 6, respectively.
* The percentage of Internet connections from India with speeds above 256 Kbps was at 74 percent, indicating gradual shift from dial-up speeds to high speed connectivity.
* The percentage of Internet connections from India with speeds above 2 Mbps was at 5 percent, growing 16 percent compared to Q2.
* In comparison, China had 4.3 percent connections above 2Mbps and United States had 64 percent connections above 2Mbps.
* India ranked 12th in terms of global attack traffic origination in Q3, contributing 1.6 percent to observed global attack traffic; last quarter, India was ranked at 15th.

Commenting on the report, Sanjay Singh, Managing Director, India, Akamai Technologies, said: “During the third quarter of 2008, Akamai observed web-traffic originating from 179 unique countries around the world. Our global network of 40,000 servers across 70 countries enables us to offer unique insight into how the Internet is being leveraged around the world.

"In Q3, we saw 23 percent growth in terms of new IPs from India. This increase may be attributable to more people turning to the World Wide Web for news and video content related to the Beijing Olympic Games, which took place in August. We also noted a gradual improvement in terms of IP per capita which increased to 2.3 unique IPs per 1,000 people, and believe India is moving in the right direction and is poised for significant growth in Internet adoption in the coming years."

Global connectivity saw big advances in the third quarter, with various undersea cable projects getting underway or nearing completion, the commercial launch of WiMAX services in a number of countries, and the announcement of fiber-to-the-premises services that will bring gigabit-speed connections to subscribers in Japan, the Ukraine, and the Netherlands.

Regarding global connection speeds, South Korea had the highest levels of high broadband connectivity for the third straight quarter. In the United States, Delaware also maintained its top position, with 55% of connections to Akamai occurring at 5Mbps or greater. Looking at observed “narrowband” connections, Mayotte and Equatorial Guinea were the “slowest” countries, with 97 percent and 94 percent of connections to Akamai, respectively, occurring at speeds below 256Kbps.

Akamai’s unique level of visibility into the connection speeds of systems issuing requests to the Akamai network has created a one-of-a-kind view into broadband adoption around the globe.  Leveraging that data, Akamai’s quarterly “State of the Internet” report identifies both the countries and US states with the fastest and slowest average connection speeds exhibited by IP addresses originating from those respective geographies.

Leveraging published reports and information available on its network, Akamai’s quarterly report provides insight into key Internet statistics such as origin of attack traffic, network outages and broadband connectivity levels across the globe.  As the company’s third published edition, the report also now provides a quarter-over-quarter view into trends.