State of the Internet: Fiber, Fast Cities and Faster Broadband

The last three months of 2010 were good for broadband, thanks to growing demand for high-speed connections and growing popularity of fiber-based networks in Asia and Europe, according to the State of the Internet Report put together by Akamai Technologies.

According to Akamai data, the global broadband adoption at the end of 2010 was about 61 percent with nine of the top 10 countries having ended 2010 with broadband adoption levels of 90 percent or higher. Given that Akamai has a fairly large and global footprint, the Akamai data is a good proxy for overall trends.

• In the US, three of every four connections to Akamai are at speeds above 2 Mbps.
• In the US, during the fourth quarter of 2010, the average measured connection speed was 5.1 Mbps, up about 9.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009.
• The US had an average peak connection speed of 20.3 Mbps during the fourth quarter of 2010.
• Delaware is the fastest state in the union with an average speed of 7.2 Mbps; 97 percent of connections to Akamai at speeds above 2 Mbps.
• The growing popularity of fiber-based networks and availability of higher speed cable connections meant three East Coast communities -- Staten Island, Jersey City and Boston Metro -- became members of the top 10 US broadband cities club.