State of the Internet: the internet’s getting faster in lesser-developed countries

In many parts of the world, countries with sparse or underdeveloped internet infrastructure are getting a technology boost. But the upgrade in network speeds has also created new opportunities for hacker attacks, according to Akamai’s State of the Internet report.

Since this time last year, the average internet speed among the 117 countries that qualified for the quarterly study has grown by 17 percent to 3.1 Mbps, with a number of countries — including Ecuador, Guatemala, Iraq and Indonesia — seeing double-digit growth. While connection speeds in many underdeveloped countries places are still well below global averages (at speeds of close to 1Mbps) these developing areas are prioritizing internet growth.