South African broadband speeds are far below those of the rest of the world, according to the latest Akamai study, in spite of a 14 per cent increase in speed year-on-year.
The study, entitled State of the Internet, shows that South Africa ranks 97th in the world in terms of average broadband speeds.
Of all the countries surveyed as part of the study in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, South Africa’s broadband speeds are the slowest – at an average of 2.3 megabytes per second (Mbps) – half that of the country’s closest competitor, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
South Africa’s peak connection speed during the fourth quarter of 2013 was 9.1Mbps, representing 34 per cent growth year-on-year, however this was far behind the global peak of 23.2Mbps.
The study also documented that only 7.4 per cent of South Africa has access to broadband speeds of over 4Mbps, representing shrinking quarter-on-quarter penetration in this bracket, with a decrease of 3.2 per cent.
South Africa also had the slowest mobile connectivity of the three countries surveyed in Africa, with average mobile speeds of 0.6Mbps compared to 1.7Mbps in Morocco and Egypt, while South African mobile operators had the lowest peak speeds, with Egypt at 11.8Mbps, Morocco at 15.5Mbps and South Africa at 3.1Mbps.
