NZ slips in global state-of-the-internet report

US company Akamai has released its latest global state-of-the-internet report, covering the third quarter of 2010.

The report finds: 

• New Zealand has over 1.4 million unique IP addresses with an average connection speed of 3.2Mbit/s (up from 2.97Mbit/s in Q2)
• New Zealand drops two spots from the second quarter to 41st
• Australia maintains global rank for 48th fastest broadband speed; 
• Australia reports more than 9.3 million unique IP addresses with an average connection speed of 2.9Mbit/s

Akamai - which as a global cloud-optimisation and content caching provider has a degree of interest in slower broadband - has always found flower results for New Zealand than tests carried out independently for the Commerce Commission by Epitiro.

In its latest broadband report, the commission found average domestic broadband speeds ranging from 3Mbit/s to 5Mbit/s (depending on town or city) and international connection speeds averaging 1.5Mbit/s.

Telecom's Chorus division is currently on the last leg of a multi-year project to bring 10Mbit/s+ broadband speed to more than 80% of New Zealanders.

2600 of 3600 planned roadside fibre cabinets have been deployed under the rollout-out, with the balance due to be deployed by the end of this year.

However, the Commerce Commission's conclusion was that Epitiro was not registering 3Mbit/s to 5Mbit/s speeds because of infrastructure limitations. 

Rather, many Kiwis were simply not willing to pay for the fastest plans on offer.

Other highlights of the Akamai report (which can be downloaded here):

Mobile Consumption
The average data consumption experienced by mobile providers grew during the third quarteron 101 of the 111 listed providers. Eighty-nine of the mobile providers saw consumption of data downloaded from Akamai increase on a year-over-year basis. In addition, 35 providers doubled the average monthly volume of content downloaded from Akamai year-over-year.

Mobile Connectivity
A mobile provider in Russia took the top spot for the highest average connection speed among the known mobile network providers, reaching nearly 6 Mbps. In reviewing average peak connection speeds, a provider in Slovakia has again topped the list with an average peak connection speed of nearly 23 Mbps, gaining approximately 2.5 Mbps from the second quarter. Average peak connection speeds remained strong in the third quarter, with 15 providers achieving speeds in excess of 10 Mbps, and all but two of the 111 listed providers achieving speeds of 1 Mbps or more. Looking at trends over time, six providers recorded greater than 100% quarterly growth in average peak connection speeds, with 41 increasing 100% or more year-over-year.

Attack Traffic
The U S remained the top source of observed attack traffic, followed by Russia. In aggregate, the two countries were responsible for just over 20% of observed attack traffic, with the balance coming from 207 additional countries/regions. Aggregated at a continental level, Europe was responsible for the highest percentage of observed attacks.In looking at attack traffic from just mobile network providers, Italy remained in the top spot at 28%. The UK saw the largest quarterly increase (nearly 80%) in observed attack traffic from known mobile network providers.

Global Connection Speeds
Globally, the average connection speed once again increased, both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, reaching nearly 2 Mbps. Taiwan’s 24% quarterly growth was the most significant among the top 10 countries/regions, enabling it to achieve an average connection speed of 5 Mbps. In examining the average peak speeds around the world, only four countries/regions had speeds of 30 Mbps or more–South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Romania.

100 Fastest Cities Worldwide

• Cities in Asia overwhelmingly continued to dominate the top 100 list, once again accounting for three-quarters of the list, with 61 cities in Japan and 13 cities in South Korea and Hong Kong
• After several quarters in first place, Masan, South Korea fell to third place globally, bested by South Korean cities Taegu and Taejon
• Constanta, Romania ranked as the fastest city in Europe (#48 out of 100)
• Only thirteen U.S. cities made the list, with San Jose, CA ranking as the fastest U.S. city (#57 out of 100)