Press Release
Akamai Technologies, Inc. the world’s largest and most trusted cloud delivery platform, announced today the release of its First Quarter, 2017 State of the Internet Report. Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform™, the report provides insight into key global statistics such as connection speeds, broadband adoption metrics, notable Internet disruptions, IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 implementation.
Data and graphics from the First Quarter, 2017 State of the Internet Report can be found on the Akamai State of the Internet site and through the Akamai State of the Internet app for iOS and Android devices. State of the Internet Report- related discussions are also taking place on the Akamai Community.
“Increases in connection speeds and broadband penetration have helped enable the Internet to support levels of traffic that even just a few years ago would have been unimaginable,” said David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report. “One need only look to January’s U.S. Presidential Inauguration, which broke traffic records for live coverage of a single news event delivered by Akamai largely thanks to the combination of more viewers watching at increasingly higher levels of video quality.”
European Highlights from Akamai’s First Quarter, 2017 State of the Internet Report:
Connection Speeds:
• Twenty-seven of the 31 surveyed European countries had average connection speeds at or above 10 Mbps – the same as in the previous quarter.
• Despite a slight 0.4% decrease in average connection speeds to 23.5 Mbps, Norway retained its top spot in the first quarter of 2017 followed by Sweden (22.5 Mbps) and Switzerland (21.7 Mbps).
• Sweden led the region with the highest average peak connection speed at 95.3 Mbps. In all, 28 of the 31 European countries surveyed enjoyed average peak connection speeds of at least 50 Mbps in the quarter.
• Year-over-year, average connection speeds increased in 19 European countries; gains ranged from 0.5% in Greece (7.9 Mbps) to 17% in Denmark (20.1 Mbps). In total, eight countries experienced double-digit yearly gains; Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Croatia.
Broadband Adoption:
• Five European countries featured in global Top 10 Countryegion listing for 25 Mbps broadband adoption: Norway (#2), Sweden (#3), Switzerland (#5), Denmark (#6) and Finland (#9). Switzerland posted the largest quarterly gain at 5.6%, followed by Finland at 2.1%.
• Sweden, with an adoption rate of 56%, overtook Norway to gain the top spot for 15 Mbps broadband adoption in the first quarter of 2017. Quarterly gains across the region ranged from 22% (Greece) to 0.1% (Norway and Poland).
• With an adoption rate of 75%, Switzerland retained the top spot among surveyed European countries for 10 Mbps adoption. Overall, 18 European countries had at least half of their unique IPv4 addresses connecting to Akamai at average speeds of 10 Mbps or higher. Quarter-over-quarter gains were observed in 25 European countries; these increases ranged from 0.4% in Lithuania, Slovenia and Czech Republic to 19% in Greece.
IPv4 and IPv6:
• In the first quarter of 2017, more than 814 million unique IPv4 addresses connected to the Akamai Intelligent Platform; this represents a 0.7% increase compared to the first quarter of 2016.
• Belgium remained the clear global leader in IPv6 adoption with 38% of its connections to Akamai occurring over IPv6 (down 19% from the previous quarter). Five other European countries featured in the Top 10 countryegion listing: Greece (#2), Switzerland (#4), Germany (#6), Estonia (#8) and the United Kingdom (#10).
• Cable and wireless/mobile providers continued to drive the largest volume of IPv6 requests. In Europe, Sky Broadband (UK), TELENET (Belgium) and Kabel Deutschland (Germany) led the way with 62%, 55% and 49% of their dual-stacked requests to Akamai made over IPv6 in their countries, respectively.
Mobile Connectivity:
• In the first quarter of 2017 the United Kingdom again had the fastest average connection speed at 26 Mbps, closely followed by Germany at 24.1 Mbps.
• Among the qualifying surveyed countriesegions in Europe, 19 had an average mobile connection speed at or exceeding 10 Mbps.
Q1 2017 announcements heralding continued growth trends in broadband adoption and speeds
• In the United Kingdom, BT announced the rollout of its 330 Mbps service to 138,000 pilot premises across the country, with full commercial deployment expected to take place in the second half of the year.
• Virgin Media UK unveiled speed increases across all its service tiers, with entry-level packages enjoying boosts from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps, and top level packages jumping from 200 Mbps to 300 Mbps.
• Vodafone Iceland announced the launch of 500 Mbps fibre-based Internet services to users across northern Iceland, while Telecom Italia’s TIM brand publicised plans for a new ISP to deliver 300 Mbps fibre-based broadband to rural and underserved areas of Italy.
• Finnish-owned Baltic cable company Starman announced a partnership with Nokia to bring the first 10 Gbps service to customers in Europe. Launching in Estonia, the service aims to reach at least 50,000 customers in the next five years.
• The European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2017 report estimates that fixed broadband is now available to 98% of Europeans, with 76% of households having access to broadband speeds of at least 30 Mbps; DESI lists the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium as having the highest connectivity score among European countries.
UK Highlights:
Average mobile connection speeds – UK is at the No1 spot at 26.0 Mbps, a position it has occupied for over a year
4Mbps broadband adoption – While the United Kingdom sits in the middle of the pack for broadband adoption among European countries, the first quarter saw numerous announcements that marked progress for the Broadband Delivery U.K. initiative, which has a goal of reaching 97% of U.K. homes with speeds of at least 24 Mbps by 2020.
10Mbps broadband adoption – in the UK this has increased 4.5% quarter on quarter
Unique IPv4 addresses – UK addresses have increased by 2.8% quarter on quarter
