The latest State of the Internet Statistics from Akamai have revealed that South Africa’s average Internet connection speed has declined to 1.81Mbps, remaining some way off the global average of 2.6Mbps.
The report found that though most countries saw an increase in speeds, South Africa’s had declined to 1.81Mbps in the second quarter of 2012 from 1.85Mbps in the previous quarter.
The Akamai report uses data gathered from its own Internet Platform, and also highlighted a global increase in connection speeds.
“The global average connection speed experienced a 14 percent quarter-over-quarter increase in the first three months of 2012, returning to 2.6Mbps,” the report said.
“Globally, 117 countries that qualified for inclusion saw average connection speeds increase quarter-over-quarter, with gains ranging from 0.2 percent in Montenegro (to 2.8Mbps), to 75 percent in Libya (to 0.5Mbps). Globally, just 18 qualifying countries saw average connection speeds decline quarter-over-quarter,” the report states.
South Africa’s connection speed had increased in the first quarter of the year, but has now taken a step backwards. In the first quarter, it was the fastest growing country when it came to “high broadband” adoption, referring to connections to Akamai of 10Mbps or greater.
The data has South Africa still lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of Internet connection speeds. Statistics released this year from Ookla’s NetIndex even had it lagging behind other African countries, with Ghana ranked the fastest on the continent. South Africa was in sixth place, also behind Kenya, Angola, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
