Broadband speeds: how does SA stack up?

 ·23 Jul 2013
broadband speeds

Akamai Technologies has released its First Quarter 2013 State of the Internet Report, showing that South Africa’s peak average Internet connection speed has exceeded 8Mbps for the first time.

Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform, the report provides insight into key global statistics including connection speeds, attack traffic, and network connectivity and availability, among many others.

Average Internet connection speed in South Africa

South Africa’s average Internet connection speed in Q1 2013 was 2,166kbps – up from 1,845kbps a year ago.

While South Africa’s average speed increase is encouraging, it is still lower than the global average of 3.1Mbps.

South Africa also remained the EMEA country with the lowest average connection speed.

Average connection speed

Average connection speed

Average peak Internet connection speed

South Africa’s average peak connection speed, which represents an average of the maximum measured connection speeds, broke the 8Mbps barrier for the first time.

South Africa’s average peak Internet connection speed in Q1 2013 was 8,026kbps – up from 6,087kbps a year ago.

However, this increase does not bring South Africa closer to the global average peak connection speeds which also saw very strong growth – increasing to 18.4 Mbps.

Average peak connection speed

Average peak connection speed

Average Internet connection speed: South Africa vs EMEA

The following table shows how South Africa compared to other countries in the EMEA region based on average connection speed.

Average Connection Speed by EMEA Country

Average Connection Speed by EMEA Country

More on broadband in South Africa

Mobile broadband speed surprise for South Africa

Good news for Internet speeds in South Africa

Surprise loss of 10Mbps+ connectivity in South Africa

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