Just a couple of weeks ago we reported that South Korea has the fastest average Internet connection speed in the world, reaching 17.5 Mbps in the latest report by Akamai, covering Q4 2011.
Now we take a look at where in the world Internet speeds have grown the fastest over the last four and a half years. It may surprise you, which countries actually made it onto the list.
Internet speed in Paraguay has increased 715%
This time we’re using the average peak connection speed, which is actually more representative of the actual connection speed in each country. What we’re comparing is how much the average peak connection speed has increased from Q3 2007 to Q4 2011.
In terms of a percentage increase, the top 10 list of countries is comprised of Paraguay, Moldova, and Azerbaijan in the top three, followed by Qatar, Armenia, Lithuania, Colombia, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and Mauritius.
As you can see, we also added the increase in terms of Mbps to the chart. So even if Paraguay leads the table with a 715% increase in average peak speed that represents “only” 7 Mbps more in 2011 compared to 2007.
Many other countries have added more Mbps, for example Lithuania. But since those countries already had a rather fast speed, the increase doesn’t mean as much in relative terms.
The best example of this is probably South Korea. Even though it keeps the throne when it comes to average Internet connection speed, the country has only seen an increase of 48.13% in average peak speed since 2007.
The top 10 countries that have added the most in average peak Internet speed during 2007-2011 include Hong Kong, Romania, South Korea, Latvia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Japan, Portugal, Lithuania, and Belgium.
It appears for one unlucky country the Internet speed has actually fallen over the last four and a half years. Morocco dropped slightly from 9.6 Mbps to 8.9 Mbps. We should, however, point out that Morocco has been fairly level over the time period and the decline does not indicate any specific trend for the North African country.
Who is ready to take the number 1 spot?
It’s always interesting to look at what’s happening with Internet in different parts of the world and we’ll certainly continue doing so in forthcoming articles.
That businesses as well as individuals get access to faster Internet connections is obviously a good thing. Let’s hope that the progress that Paraguay has made in the last few years continues, and that it spreads to other countries as well.
Image (top) via Shutterstock.
