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NZ drops two places in global web connection speed study

Average connection speeds in New Zealand have dropped slightly since the fourth quarter of 2009, but NZ still outpaces Australia.

By James Heffield / Thursday, July 29 2010

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New Zealand has slipped two ranking places in a global internet connection speed study run by web hosting giant Akamai.

The latest Akamai State of the Internet report, which examined connection speeds during the first quarter of this year, ranked New Zealand 42nd in the world. Australia ranked 50th.

According to the report, New Zealand offered an average connection speed of 2.9Mbits/s in the first quarter of this year. That compared to average connection speed of 3Mbits/s in the fourth quarter of 2009, when New Zealand ranked 40th in the study.

The report found that 64% of New Zealanders had average connection speeds above 2Mbits/s in the first quarter of this year, while 6.3% had connection speeds below 256Kbits/s.

New Zealand’s average connection speed of 2.9Mbits/s was well above the global average of 1.7Mbits/s and marginally faster than Australia’s average connection speed of 2.6 Mbits/s. However, it remained well behind the average speeds obtained in the big three of South Korea (12Mbits/s), Hong Kong (9 Mbits/s) and Japan (7.9Mbits/s).

South Korea’s impressive connection speed earned it the number one country spot and the honour of being home to the city with the fastest average connection speed. Residents and businesses in Masan, South Korea, achieve average speeds of 15.8Mbits/s, according to Akamai’s report.

“The former top three cities – Berkeley (California), Chapel Hill (North Carolina), and Stanford (California) – have all disappeared from the top 100 list, with former fourth place city Masan (South Korea) moving into the top slot… Asia dominates the list, with more than half (61) of the top cities located in Japan,” Akamai said.

Akamai conducts its State of the Internet report four times a year. The data is obtained from users going through Akamai’s globally deployed server network.