Average Internet Connection Speeds on a Decline

According to Akamai, the typical Internet user is browsing websites with a bandwidth of 2.3 Mbps. Internet users lost, on average, about 14 percent of their Internet connection speed in the fourth quarter for 2011.

However, Akamai admits that Q4 may have been a sequential, seasonal blip from Q3 as the annual average climbed by 19 percent. South Korea remains the country with the fastest Internet connections that now average 17.5 Mbps, followed by Japan with 9.1 Mbps and Hong Kong with 9.1 Mbps as well. The world's fastest Internet area is South Korea's Taegu, in which people have access to an average connection of 21.8 Mbps.

The United States has not been part of the top 10 of the fastest Internet nations for more than a decade. According to Akamai, the average Q4 2011 connection speed was 5,812 Kbps, which, however, ranks above nations such as Canada (5,635 Kbps), Germany (5,033 Kbps), UK (4,909 Kbps), and Australia (4,917 Kbps). There are plenty of nations left that average at less than 1 Mbps, including Venezuela (889 Kbps), Indonesia (882 Kbps), India (886 Kbps), the majority of African countries and nations in the Mideast. The slowest connection speeds can be found in Eritrea (107 Kbps) and Cuba (121 Kbps).