Australia falls to 48th in internet speed rankings

Australia ranks a dismal 48th place in the latest quarterly global rankings for average internet connection speeds produced by Akamai.

Despite average connection speeds rising by 4.2% quarter on quarter to 8.2 Mbps, Australia fell two positions on the global leaderboards during the fourth quarter, Akamai’s latest ‘State of the Internet’ report shows.

In terms of average peak connection speeds Australia ranked even worse, falling from 46th to 60th place. The average peak speed declined 6.3% quarter-on-quarter to 39.3 Mbps, making Australia the only nation in APAC to experience a decline in average peak speeds.

Year-on-year, Australia saw both the smallest increase in average connection speeds and the smallest increase in average peak connection speeds in the APAC region, at just 4.2% and 6.4% respectively.

Akamai’s report also ranks Australia at 56th place in terms of 4 Mpbs or higher broadband adoption with a rate of 73%, barely higher than the global average of 69%.

Australia also dropped two positions to 47th for 10 Mbps broadband adoption and fell five places to 44th in terms of 15 Mbps broadband adoption.  

Average page load times also increased quarter-on-quarter to 3632 ms, from 3598 ms in Q3.

The one bright spot was mobile broadband. Australia recorded the highest average peak mobile connection speeds globally during the fourth quarter at 153.3 Mbps, making the nation one of only five globally to record an average peak speed of over 100 Mbps.

Australia and Finland also jointly led the world in terms of 4 Mbps or higher mobile broadband adoption, with a take-up rate of 99%. Only eight countries had adoption rates above 90%.

The global average internet connection speed grew 8.6% sequentially in the fourth quarter to 5.6 Mpbs, the report shows. South Korea had the fastest average connection speed at 26.7 Mbps. Global average peak connection speeds meanwhile grew a slim 1% to 32.5 Mbps.

Image courtesy of Andrew Mager under CC