Average U.S. broadband speeds are on the upswing but are still coming up short, at least when viewed through the lens of the Federal Communications Commission.
U.S. Internet speed averages reached 11.9 Megabits per second in the first quarter, a 13% year-over-year increase (and up 7.4% on a quarter-over-quarter basis), per the latest State of the Internet Report from content delivery network company Akamai.
Starting with the Q1 report, Akamai began to track Internet adoption of 25 Mbps speeds, primarily to fit the FCC’s new definition of broadband (25 Mbps downstream by 3 Mbps upstream) that replaced the previous standard (4 Mbps/1 Mbps).
On a global basis, average connection speeds rose 10%, to 5 Mbps, Akamai said.
In a finer focus on U.S. regions and states, the FCC’s backyard put in a good showing. The study found that 18% of unique IP addresses connecting to Akamai in Washington, D.C, averaged at least 25 Mbps, followed by Delaware (15%). However, 46 states saw levels below 10%.
The U.S. also showed improvement with respect to average peak connection speeds, coming in at 53.3 Mbps, up 31% year-over-year and 7.9% quarter-over-quarter, good for a ranking of 22nd and enough to clear the FCC’s new bar for broadband. Singapore was tops, with an average peak of 98.5 Mbps.
