Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The State of
the Internet
1st Quarter, 2010 Report
Asia-Pacific Region
The “spinning globe” featured in the Akamai NOCC represents where Akamai servers are located and how much traffic they are seeing.
Executive Summary
Each quarter, Akamai publishes a “State of the Internet” report. This report
includes data gathered from across Akamai’s global server network about attack
traffic, broadband adoption, and mobile connectivity, as well as trends seen in
this data over time. Periodically, it also aggregates publicly available news and
information about notable events seen throughout the quarter, including Denial
of Service attacks, Web site hacks, and network events, including outages and
new connections.
During the first quarter of 2010, Akamai observed attack traffic originating from 198 unique countries around
the world. Russia remained the top attack traffic source, accounting for 12% of observed attack traffic in total.
The United States and China once again held the second and third place spots respectively, accounting for nearly
20% of observed attack traffic. Attack traffic concentration returned to levels seen in the third quarter of 2009,
with the top 10 ports once again seeing nearly 95% of the observed attack traffic. We noted that when aggregat-
ed at a continental level, Europe was responsible for the highest percentage of attacks seen in the first quarter,
both overall, and for attacks observed to have originated in known mobile networks. Port 445 continued to be
the most highly targeted port for observed attacks, again both overall and for attack traffic originating in known
mobile networks.
Akamai observed a 7.2% increase (from the fourth quarter of 2009) globally in the number of unique IP addresses
connecting to Akamai’s network. From a global connection speed perspective, South Korea continued to have
the highest level of “high broadband” (>5 Mbps) connectivity. South Korea also maintained the highest average
connection speed, at 12 Mbps, and recorded the highest average maximum connection speed, at 33 Mbps, where
the per-IP address maximum connection speed was averaged across IP addresses from each country. Cities in South
Korea also held many of the top spots in the rankings of highest average and average maximum1 connection
speeds by city.
In the first quarter of 2010, average measured connection speeds on mobile network providers around the
world ranged from 7.2 Mbps, down to 105 Kbps – both were observed on mobile providers in Slovakia. Of the
109 mobile network providers listed in the report, 35 achieved average connection speeds above 1 Mbps. Average
maximum1 connection speeds on mobile providers around the world ranged from over 20 Mbps down to just over
400 Kbps. Of the 109 listed providers, 83 achieved average maximum1 speeds greater than the 2 Mbps broad-
band threshold, 33 achieved average maximum1 speeds greater than the 5 Mbps high broadband threshold, and
six achieved average maximum1 speeds greater than 10 Mbps. Among mobile providers in the Asia Pacific region,
average connection speeds ranged from 218 Kbps in Indonesia to 2004 Kbps in Hong Kong. Average maximum1
connection speeds within the region ranged from 1754 Kbps in Malaysia to 8581 Kbps in Hong Kong.
Table of Contents
Introduction 5
Section 2: Security 6
2.1 Attack Traffic, Top Originating Countries 6
2.2 Attack Traffic, Top Ports 7
Section 3: Internet Penetration 8
Section 4: Geography– Global 9
4.1 Global Average Connection Speeds 10
4.2 Global Average Connection Speeds, City View 11
4.3 Global Average Maximum Connection Speeds 13
4.4 Global Average Maximum Connection Speeds, City View 14
4.5 Global High Broadband Connectivity 16
4.6 Global High Broadband Connectivity: Speed Distribution 17
4.7 Global Broadband Connectivity 18
4.8 Global Narrowband Connectivity 19
Section 5: Geography– Asia Pacific Region 20
5.1 Asia Pacific Average Connection Speeds 20
5.2 Asia Pacific Average Connection Speeds, City View 21
5.3 Asia Pacific Average Maximum Connection Speeds 21
5.4 Asia Pacific Average Maximum Connection Speeds, City View 22
5.5 Asia Pacific High Broadband Connectivity 22
5.6 Asia Pacific High Broadband Connectivity: Speed Distribution 23
5.7 Asia Pacific Broadband Connectivity 24
5.8 Asia Pacific Narrowband Connectivity 24
Section 6: Mobile 25
Section 7: Appendix 28
Section 8: Endnotes 29
Akamai noted accelerated quarterly growth in the global observed unique IP count in the first quarter of
2010, which was up over 7% from the prior quarter, to over 487 million unique IP addresses making requests
to Akamai. Quarterly trending in global average connection speeds was mixed during the first quarter, though
quarterly trending in average maximum1 connection speeds was generally positive. Given that data from known
mobile networks was removed from the data set used to calculate connection speed metrics, more countries
than expected showed declining quarterly levels of high broadband and broadband adoption during the first
quarter, though we believe that this may be related to the increased consumption of rate-limited streams
delivered over HTTP.2 From a year-over-year perspective, trending was more generally positive for both metrics.
Rates of narrowband adoption also continued to show surprising levels of growth on a global basis.
In the Asia Pacific Region, South Korea continued to maintain its position as the country with the strongest
connection speed metrics, placing first for average connection speed (12 Mbps) and average maximum1
connection speed (33 Mbps), as well as high broadband (65%) adoption.
In response to the growing amount of Internet content being accessed through mobile devices such as
smartphones and laptops equipped with mobile broadband connection technologies, and also in response
to multiple inquiries for such data, Akamai has begun publishing insights into metrics collected from connections
to Akamai that have been identified as coming from networks associated with mobile providers. During the first
quarter of 2010, average measured connection speeds on mobile network providers around the world ranged
from 7.2 Mbps, down to 105 Kbps – both were observed on mobile providers in Slovakia. Average maximum1
connection speeds on mobile providers around the world ranged from over 20 Mbps down to just over 400
Kbps. Consumption of content from Akamai by users on known mobile networks ranged from 9.5 GB per
unique IP address per month down to just 11 MB per unique IP address per month.
Akamai maintains a distributed set of agents deployed across the Internet that
serve to monitor attack traffic. Based on the data collected by these agents, Akamai
is able to identify the top countries from which attack traffic originates, as well as
the top ports targeted by these attacks. (Ports are network layer protocol identifiers.)
This section, provides insight into Internet attack traffic, as observed and measured
by Akamai, during the first quarter of 2010. While some quarter-over-quarter
trending may be discussed, it is expected that both the top countries and top
ports will experience some change on a quarterly basis.
2.1 Attack Traffic, Top Originating Countries Aggregating the observed attack traffic at a continental
During the first quarter of 2010, Akamai observed attack level, we find that Europe is far and away responsible for
traffic originating from 198 countries, the same as in the the largest percentage of attacks seen in the first quarter,
fourth quarter of 2009. For the third consecutive quarter, as shown in Figure 2. In addition, in aggregating observed
Russia held the top spot, originating 12% of observed attack traffic that originated from known mobile networks,
attack traffic, as shown in Figure 1. The United States as shown in Figure 3, we find that the largest percentage
remained in second place though the portion of global of it (approximately half) appears to have come from
observed attack traffic the country generated declined European mobile networks, followed by nearly a third
from 12% to 10% quarter over quarter. India and of it from mobile networks across South America. Given
Argentina dropped out of the top 10 in the first quarter the ports targeted by attacks identified as coming from
(to 13th and 11th places, respectively), while Japan and mobile networks, and the similarity to the overall target
Poland moved into the top 10 (after ranking 11th and port list, we believe that this attack traffic is likely being
12th respectively in the fourth quarter of 2009). Attack generated by infected PC-type clients connecting to wire-
concentration among the top 10 countries declined less networks through mobile broadband connection
slightly from the prior quarter, accounting for 61% technologies, and not by infected smartphones or
of observed attacks. similar mobile devices.
Asia Pacific
31%
Figure 2: Q1 2010 Observed Attack Traffic, Aggregated by Region Port Port Use % Traffic Q4 ‘09 %
445 Microsoft-DS 74% 74%
22 SSH 6.3% 5.2%
139 NetBIOS 3.2% 2.8%
North America 2.2% Africa 0.1%
23 Telnet 2.5% 2.5%
135 Microsoft-RPC 2.5% 2.8%
80 WWW 1.7% 1.5%
4899 Remote Administrator 1.5% 1.1%
Asia Pacific 1433 Microsoft SQL Server 1.1% 0.9%
16%
5900 VNC Server 0.9% 0.8%
1080 SOCKS Proxy 0.5% 0.3%
Various Other 5.6% –
Europe 50%
Figure 4: Attack Traffic, Top Ports
South
America 32%
2.2 Attack Traffic, Top Ports In reviewing observed attack traffic originating in known
Attack concentration among the top 10 targeted ports mobile networks, Port 445 was, for most network providers,
increased quarter over quarter, with the top 10 ports far and away the most targeted port, likely indicating user
responsible for just under 95% of observed attacks populations with insufficiently patched systems running
(up from just under 92% in the fourth quarter of 2009). Microsoft Windows OS variants that are connecting to
As usual, port 445 was the most targeted port, once mobile networks, as opposed to malware running on smart-
again targeted by 74% of observed attacks. In looking phones and similar mobile devices. Other popular targets
at the target port distribution across the top 10 countries, for the first quarter included Port 135 (Microsoft-RPC),
Port 139 (NetBIOS), and Port 22 (SSH).
Akamai has a unique level of visibility into the connection speeds of end-user
systems, and as such, of broadband adoption around the globe, by virtue of the
billions of requests for Web content that it services on a daily basis through its
globally-deployed server network. Because Akamai has implemented a distributed
network model, deploying servers within edge networks, it can deliver content more
reliably and more consistently at those speeds, in contrast to centralized competitors
that rely on fewer deployments in large data centers. For more information on why
this is possible, please see Akamai’s How Will The Internet Scale? White Paper3
or the video explanation at www.akamai.com/whytheedge.
The data presented within this section was collected for standard-definition DVD quality video content, while
during the first quarter of 2010 through Akamai’s globally- Blu-Ray (1080p) video content has a maximum video bit
deployed server network and includes all countries/regions rate of 40 Mbps, according to the Blu-Ray FAQ.4 As we have
that had more than 1,000 average monthly unique IP done in prior quarters, in order to provide additional insight
addresses make requests to Akamai’s network during the into where users have connection speeds that would allow
first quarter. For purposes of classification in this report, them to be able to effectively consume this higher quality
the “broadband” data included below is for connections media, we will continue to examine how the “high broad-
greater than 2 Mbps, and “high broadband” is for con- band” connections are distributed across speed groupings
nections of 5 Mbps or greater. In contrast, the “narrow- ranging from 5 to >25 Mbps. In addition, starting with this
band” data included below is for connections slower than edition of the State of the Internet report, we will begin
256 Kbps. Note that the percentage changes reflected reporting average maximum1 connection speeds around
below are not additive – they are relative to the prior the world, from a country/region, state, and city perspec-
quarter(s). (That is, a Q4 value of 50% and a Q1 value tive. This metric can provide insight into the peak speeds
of 51% would be reflected here as a 2% change.) A that users can likely expect from their Internet connections.
quarter-over-quarter change is shown within the tables We will also continue to look at which cities around the
in several sections below in an effort to highlight general world have the highest average and average maximum1
trends. A year-over-year change is also shown in some connection speeds.
tables to illustrate longer-term trends.
Finally, starting with this quarter’s State of the Internet
As the quantity of HD-quality media increases over time, report, traffic from known mobile network providers will
and the consumption of that media increases, end users be analyzed and reviewed in a separate section of the
are likely to require ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth. report, and this has been removed from the data set used
A connection speed of 2 Mbps is arguably sufficient for to calculate the metrics reported in the present section.
standard definition TV-quality video content, and 5 Mbps
4.1 Global Average Connection Speeds With traffic from known mobile networks now removed
After a generally positive showing in Q4 2009, changes from the data set, it is not immediately clear what is causing
to average connection speeds are once again mixed the observed decline in average connection speeds on a
around the world. (Readers may note that the Mbps global basis and in other countries. The base data set may
figures below are higher than those listed in prior editions still include usage from mobile networks not yet identified,
of this report, but are still reflecting quarter-over-quarter or from network providers that are mixing mobile and fixed
declines. As noted in the introduction to this section, network traffic on a single autonomous system. Alternatively,
traffic from known mobile providers has been removed it may point to higher usage of network-reliant applications
from the data sets used to calculate this metric for Q1 and devices that are consuming some amount of network
2010, and the accompanying quarter-over-quarter and bandwidth in communicating with non-Akamai systems.
year-over-year changes have been calculated from this Finally, some of this decline may be related to the delivery
adjusted data set as well.) As shown in Figure 6, average of video content for the 2010 Winter Olympics over the
speed increases among the top 10 countries were largely Akamai HD Network,2 as discussed in Section 4.5 below.
unremarkable, with Hong Kong and Denmark remaining
During the first quarter, 96 countries had average
essentially flat, and Japan, the Netherlands, and Switzer-
connection speeds below 1 Mbps, a level consistent with
land improving by 3.5% or less. Over the long term,
the prior quarter. Akamai measured average connection
year-over-year trends are more positive, however, with
speeds below 100 Kbps in five countries in the first quarter
seven of the top 10 countries having higher average
– up from three in the fourth quarter of 2009. (Note that
connection speeds than during the same period a year
the slowest countries often have the smallest number
ago. The United States ranked 16th globally, managing
of unique IP addresses connecting to Akamai, so it may
slight half-percent increases quarter-over-quarter and
be the case that a few less countries fell below the 1000
year-over year. Given this, the adjusted average connec-
unique IP address threshold in the first quarter than in
tion speed for the fourth quarter would be just under
the fourth quarter.) The lowest average connection speed
4.7 Mbps – nearly a full Mbps higher than the speed
was once again in Mayotte, at 40 Kbps, even with the
reported in last quarter’s report, which included traffic
prior quarter.
from mobile networks.
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Cities in Asia dominate the Global Average Connection Speeds top 100 list, with
61 located in Japan, 12 more in South Korea, and Hong Kong. Fourteen cities
from North America made it into the top 100, along with 12 cities in Europe.
Country/Region City Q1 ‘10 Avg. Kbps Country/Region City Q1 ‘10 Avg. Kbps
1 South Korea Masan 15839 51 Japan Utsunomiya 7885
2 South Korea Poryong 14134 52 Japan Fukui 7801
3 South Korea Kimchon 13845 53 Canada Oakville 7790
4 South Korea Taegu 13796 54 Japan Tokushima 7780
5 South Korea Milyang 13463 55 Japan Yosida 7769
6 South Korea Seocho 12829 56 Japan Hakodate 7761
7 South Korea Ilsan 12500 57 Canada Victoria 7759
8 Japan Usen 12499 58 Germany Baden-Baden 7733
9 Japan Tokai 12377 59 Japan Tokyo 7675
10 South Korea Seoul 11861 60 Japan Yamagata 7659
11 Japan Kanagawa 11541 61 Romania Constanta 7623
12 Japan Shimotsuma 11206 62 Japan Yamaguchi 7521
13 Japan Urawa 11017 63 Netherlands Groningen 7468
14 South Korea Suwon 10736 64 Japan Kochi 7388
15 Japan Asahi 10670 65 Japan Iwaki 7316
16 Japan Tochigi 10248 66 United States Monterey Park, CA 7272
17 Japan Marunouchi 9804 67 Japan Kofu 7266
18 Sweden Umea 9799 68 Japan Okayama 7233
19 Japan Ibaraki 9684 69 Japan Osaka 7135
20 Japan Shizuoka 9402 70 Japan Toyama 7077
21 Japan Nagoya 9262 71 Japan Kagoshima 7044
22 Japan Kyoto 9249 72 South Korea Suyudong 7031
23 Japan Hyogo 9038 73 Japan Saga 6962
24 Japan Yokohama 9001 74 Japan Kumamoto 6943
25 Japan Kobe 8991 75 Japan Tottori 6858
26 Japan Gifu 8975 76 United States Riverside, CA 6845
27 South Korea Yongsan 8950 77 Japan Okidate 6784
28 Japan Sendai 8897 78 Japan Morioka 6776
29 Japan Nagano 8887 79 United States Fairfield, CA 6719
30 Norway Lyse 8887 80 Czech Republic Ceska 6685
31 Japan Chiba 8801 81 United States Capitol Heights, MD 6614
32 Japan Nara 8637 82 Japan Miyazaki 6610
33 Japan Hodogaya 8584 83 Japan Nagasaki 6602
34 Hong Kong Hong Kong 8571 84 Romania Timisoara 6599
35 Japan Wakayama 8559 85 Romania Iasi 6589
36 Japan Fukuoka 8476 86 Japan Akita 6550
37 Japan Yokkaichi 8412 87 United States Hayward, CA 6545
38 Japan Kagawa 8370 88 Sweden Goteborg 6537
39 Japan Niho 8333 89 United States Walnut Creek, CA 6534
40 Japan Soka 8301 90 United States Staten Island, NY 6518
41 Japan Niigata 8248 91 United States Oakland, CA 6476
42 Japan Otsu 8240 92 United States San Mateo, CA 6452
43 Japan Hiroshima 8209 93 Netherlands Joure 6437
44 Netherlands Wageningen 8130 94 United States Olympia, WA 6426
45 South Korea Inchon 8102 95 Japan Oita 6406
46 Japan Hamamatsu 8059 96 Japan Otemachi 6380
47 Japan Matsuyama 8053 97 United States Boston Metro, MA 6378
48 Japan Mito 8044 98 Netherlands Tilburg 6352
49 Japan Kokuryo 8042 99 Japan Sapporo 6317
50 Japan Kanazawa 7999 100 United States Union, NJ 6317
4.4 Global Average Maximum Connection When viewed at a more granular city level, the average
Speeds, City View maximum1 connection speeds tell an even better story
Following the lead of Sections 4.2 and 4.3 above, starting of the availability of extremely high-speed connectivity
this quarter, the State of the Internet report will also begin around the world. As Figure 11 illustrates, three cities
to review average maximum1 connection speeds at a city had average maximum1 connection speeds in excess
level. As noted in Section 4.2, connections from known of 40 Mbps, while 22 more exceeded 30 Mbps. Nearly
academic networks (autonomous systems) were removed 100 additional cities around the world had average
from the source data set in order to mitigate impact that maximum1 connection speeds above 20 Mbps, and over
high-speed campus connections may have had on the 360 more achieved average maximum1 connection speeds
overall rankings. We’ve also applied a filter of 50,000 between 10 and 20 Mbps. Over 190 more surpassed the
unique IP addresses for inclusion in this list. “high broadband” threshold of 5 Mbps, while over 130
fell between that level and the “broadband” threshold
It comes as no surprise that Japan and South Korea
of 2 Mbps. Only one city (with more than 50,000 unique
rule the top 10 for this metric as well, with six and
IP addresses connecting to Akamai in the first quarter)
four cities respectively among the top 10, as shown
saw an average maximum1 connection speed below
in Figure 11. Additionally, Figure 10 shows that Japan
1 Mbps – Tripoli, Libya.
and South Korea also dominate the top 100 cities, with
Japan holding over half (53) of the spots on the list, and
South Korea taking another 11. In Europe, 8 cities across
five countries are included in the top 100, with four of
those cities in Romania. In North America, the United
States accounts for over a quarter (27) of the entries.
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Figure 10: Number of Cities in top 100, Average Maximum Connection Speed
4.5 Global High Broadband Connectivity Overall, we believe that the declines seen in some regions
In the first quarter of 2010, one-fifth of the connections in the first quarter may be related to the streaming of the
to Akamai were at speeds greater than 5 Mbps – down 2010 Winter Olympics on the Akamai HD Network,5 which
slightly from the prior quarter, but a bit more than the leverages HTTP to provide adaptive bitrate streaming, re-
same quarter a year ago. As shown in Figure 12, quarterly sulting in unmatched scale, quality and a highly interactive
changes across the top 10 countries were mixed, though viewer experience. Streams for the Olympics were encoded
none of the changes were significant. However, for most by the broadcasters at six unique bitrates between 350
of the top 10 countries, yearly growth in high broadband Kbps and 3.45 Mbps – all below the “high broadband”
penetration was fairly strong, with seven of them see- threshold of 5 Mbps, with four of the six bitrates below
ing yearly increases greater than 10%. (Note that traffic the “broadband” threshold of 2 Mbps. As such, because
from known mobile networks was removed here as well, delivery of the streams would have been rate-limited to
which may cause some of the metrics to differ significantly those bitrates (due to the encoding rates), this may have
from values published in prior editions of the report.) impacted the percentage of connections to Akamai in
The positive year-over-year changes are an encouraging excess of 5 Mbps. The Akamai HD Network was first an-
trend across the top 10 and on a global basis. In looking nounced in September 2009,6 and its growth in the first
at countries beyond the top 10, those showing year-over- year of availability is a very positive sign, both for customer
year gains outnumbered declines by a 5:4 ratio, though adoption of the service, as well as the continued growth
there were a number of countries that saw significant of video consumption online. Similar to the impact of data
yearly improvements, likely due to relatively low base from mobile networks in prior quarters, and the subse-
levels of high broadband penetration. Similarly, many quent filtering of such data, Akamai plans to implement
of the countries outside the top 10 that saw significant similar filtering of such rate-limited content, as appropriate,
yearly declines also had relatively low base levels of high from future State of the Internet data sets.
broadband penetration.
Country/Region % above 5 Mbps 5–10 Mbps 10–15 Mbps 15–20 Mbps 20–25 Mbps >25 Mbps
1 South Korea 65% 28% 14% 7.7% 4.7% 11%
2 Japan 60% 34% 16% 5.4% 2.1% 2.2%
3 Romania 48% 33% 8.9% 2.6% 1.1% 1.6%
4 Hong Kong 45% 23% 7.0% 4.2% 3.0% 7.4%
5 Sweden 42% 29% 6.9% 2.8% 1.4% 2.5%
6 Latvia 41% 28% 6.6% 2.5% 1.2% 2.3%
7 Denmark 41% 35% 3.9% 0.9% 0.4% 0.7%
8 Netherlands 40% 31% 5.7% 1.4% 0.6% 1.5%
9 Canada 34% 28% 3.7% 0.8% 0.4% 0.8%
10 Belgium 33% 31% 1.3% 0.2% 0.1% 0.3%
…
14 United States 25% 20% 2.7% 0.9% 0.4% 0.8%
4.7 Global Broadband Connectivity pushing Switzerland into second place. While Monaco
Similar to what was noted in Section 4.5 above, we certainly has an impressive rate of broadband adoption,
believe that the rate-limited delivery of streaming content it is derived from a much smaller sample set than the
for the 2010 Olympics over the Akamai HD Network2 may balance of countries among the top 10 – it had fewer
have impacted the quarterly and yearly changes for global than 20,000 unique IP addresses that connected to
broadband connectivity globally and in selected countries Akamai at speeds above 2 Mbps, while other countries
around the world, as shown in Figure 14. In addition, as in the top 10 had hundreds of thousands or millions
was noted previously, data from known mobile networks of unique IP addresses connecting to Akamai at those
was removed from the source data set for this metric. speeds, so its ranking must be considered in that light.
Having said that, quarterly changes among the top Overall, broadband adoption around the world continues
10 countries were mixed, though the yearly changes, to be strong and increasing. In the first quarter of 2010,
on the whole, were certainly more positive. Of interest 50 countries/regions had broadband adoption levels in
is Monaco taking the top slot for global broadband, excess of 50% – this is up from 45 countries/regions in the
first quarter of 2009, and just 27 in the first quarter of 2008.
Analysts at research firm Point Topic have estimated that emerging countries,
including the BRICs, as well as others in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and
South America, will be the main driver of broadband growth over the next five
years, with a 14% annual growth rate in the number of connections. By 2014
they will account for over 320 million connections, 43% of the projected world
total of 740 million by that time.
[http://point-topic.com/content/dslanalysis/BBAfore100301.htm]
In prior editions of the State of the Internet report, metrics for the Asia Pacific region
were incorporated into the overall global metrics section. Starting with this edition
of the report, the metrics for specific geographic regions will now be presented
within their own section. The metrics for the Asia Pacific region presented here
are based on a subset of the data used for Section 4, and are subject to the same
thresholds and filters discussed within the prior section. (The subset used for this
section includes connections identified as coming from networks located in the Asia
Pacific region, based on classification by Akamai’s EdgeScape9 geolocation tool.)
5.1 Asia Pacific Average Connection Speeds China’s average speed declining 21%, with the other ten
In the Asia Pacific region, South Korea had the highest countries/regions falling within those bounds. Surprisingly,
average connection speed in the first quarter, followed there were more countries/regions that saw year-over-year
by Hong Kong and Japan. As shown in Figure 16, South declines in average speed than those that saw average
Korea’s average connection speed of 12 Mbps is 3 Mbps speeds increase. However, the year-over-year increases that
faster than second place Hong Kong, and over 15x faster were seen were, in general, fairly significant, with South
than China’s average connection speed of 695 Kbps. Korea gaining almost 10%, and Thailand jumping over
Of the dozen countries/regions surveyed within the Asia 70%. Hong Kong and Malaysia also posted double-digit
Pacific region, nine of them recorded average connection percentage increases. As noted in Section 4.5 above,
speeds below the 5 Mbps “high broadband” threshold. we believe that the rate-limited delivery of streaming
content for the 2010 Winter Olympics over the Akamai
In looking at trending over time, quarterly changes were
HD Network2 may have impacted the observed quarterly
mixed, with Thailand’s average speed gaining 14%, and
and yearly changes.
5.2 Asia Pacific Average Connection to mitigate the impact that high-speed campus connections
Speeds, City View may have had on the overall rankings. In addition, the
As with the Global Average Connection Speeds, City 50,000 unique IP address filter was used for this view as
View presented in Section 4.2, connections from known well. In reviewing the top 10 cities in the Asia Pacific region
academic networks were removed from the data set with the highest average connection speeds, as shown
5.4 Asia Paciific Average Maximum Connection 5.5 Asia Pacific High Broadband Connectivity
Speeds, City View In the first quarter of 2010, South Korea and Japan remained
While South Korea had a strong showing among the top the countries in the Asia Pacific region with the highest levels
10 cities for average connection speeds within the Asia of high broadband adoption, at 65% and 60% respectively.
Pacific region, Japan displaced a number of those cities As shown in Figure 20, these adoption levels outpace even
when looking at average maximum1 connection speeds, Hong Kong, ranked fourth globally, and are orders of mag-
as shown in Figure 19. For this metric, South Korea held nitude ahead of India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and China,
only four of the top 10 slots, with Japan taking the other none of whom saw even 1% high broadband adoption
six. The average maximum1 connection speed metric during the first quarter.
makes it clear just how much Internet connection
Quarter-over-quarter changes were, by and large, all over
in South Korea and Japan are capable of, with the top
the place. Japan and India’s sub-1% gains and Australia’s
three cities recording speeds in excess of 40 Mbps, while
44% increase were counter-balanced by declines across
the remaining seven in the top 10 all clocked in at over
a number of countries/regions, ranging from a 7.6% loss
35 Mbps.
in South Korea to a surprising 60% drop in Malaysia.
In addition to six cities in the top 10, Japan had 46 other The yearly changes were, by and large, more negative that
cities appear within the top 100. However, Japan, South the gains that were observed, though South Korea, New
Korea, and Hong Kong were the only Asia Pacific coun- Zealand, and Thailand did manage to increase their levels
tries/regions with cities in the top 100 – none from Taiwan of high broadband adoption 20% or more year-over-year.
ranked that high. Across the full list of cities that qualified As noted previously, we believe that the declines observed
for inclusion, Taiwan’s fastest city (Taichung) ranked #119 during the first quarter may be due, at least in part,
globally, and cities in Australia, Thailand, Singapore, New to delivery of rate-limited streaming video for the 2010
Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, and China also Winter Olympics over the Akamai HD Network.2
appeared on the list.
1
Country/Region
South Korea
City
Masan
Q1 ‘10 Max. Kbps
40558
The Unity Consortium’s sub-Pacific cable
2 Japan Tokai 40179 went live in March 2010. Running be-
3
4
Japan
Japan
Marunouchi
Kanagawa
40084
38239
tween Chikura, Japan and Los Angeles,
5 South Korea Kimchon 37976 Palo Alto, and San Jose in the United
6
7
South Korea
South Korea
Taegu
Poryong
37420
37030
States, it has the potential to create a
8 Japan Usen 36299 7.68Tbps connection under the Pacific.
9 Japan Urawa 36079 [http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20000715-265.html]
10 Japan Shimotsuma 35815
5.6 Asia Pacific High Broadband Connectivity: National broadband initiatives in countries including New
Speed Distribution Zealand10 and Malaysia11 costing millions of dollars (USD)
While the primary clusters of high broadband connections are intended to bring affordable broadband services to users
are at speeds between 5 and 15 Mbps, as shown in Figure across the country. New Zealand’s efforts are aiming to reach
19, South Korea remains the only country to have more “most of the population” by 2018, and Malaysia is commit-
than 10% of their connections to Akamai occur at speed ted to achieving a broadband penetration level of 50% by
over 25 Mbps. It is interesting to note that for many the end of 2010. The implementation study prepared for
countries/regions, the >25 Mbps bucket frequently Australia’s National Broadband Network initiative suggests
accounts for a higher percentage of connections than that Australia should increase its fiber build up to 93%
the preceding one or two buckets. It is not clear whether (from 90%), provide fixed wireless service for 4%, and
this is an artifact of higher speed corporate connections Ka-band satellite service for the remaining 3%, and that the
to Akamai, or if service providers in those areas have efforts can be completed in eight years.12 As these initiatives
higher subscriber counts for these higher speed tiers. become more widespread, we expect that the percentage
of connections in higher speed ‘buckets’ will grow over time.
Global Rank Country/Region % above 5 Mbps 5–10 Mbps 10–15 Mbps 15–20 Mbps 20–25 Mbps >25 Mbps
1 South Korea 65% 28% 14% 7.7% 4.7% 11%
2 Japan 60% 34% 16% 5.4% 2.1% 2.2%
4 Hong Kong 45% 23% 7.0% 4.2% 3.0% 7.4%
21 Taiwan 20% 15% 1.8% 1.0% 0.7% 1.8%
32 Singapore 11% 10% 0.6% 0.1% <0.1% 0.1%
36 Australia 10% 9.2% 0.6% 0.1% 0.1% 0.2%
41 New Zealand 7.7% 6.8% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.3%
49 Thailand 4.1% 1.6% 0.7% 0.5% 0.3% 1.0%
73 India 0.6% 0.4% 0.1% <0.1% <0.1% <0.1%
77 Malaysia 0.5% 0.3% 0.1% <0.1% <0.1% <0.1%
78 Philippines 0.4% 0.3% <0.1% <0.1% <0.1% <0.1%
83 China 0.2% 0.2% <0.1% <0.1% <0.1% <0.1%
5.7 Asia Pacific Broadband Connectivity 5.8 Asia Pacific Narrowband Connectivity
Similar to the trend seen in Section 5.5 for high broad- As shown in Figure 21, quarterly changes in narrowband
band connectivity, quarterly changes across Asia Pacific (<256 Kbps) adoption rates were mixed during the first
countries/regions for broadband connectivity were mixed quarter, and ranged from a surprising 58% gain in China
in the first quarter as well. There was a broad range of to an encouraging 72% decline in Singapore. Eight of the
changes, as half of the countries surveyed saw single digit twelve Asia Pacific countries/regions did see quarterly declines,
percentage gains/losses, while the other half saw gains/ which for this metric is a positive trend, as it shows that fewer
losses in excess of 20%. As noted previously, we believe end users are connecting at dial-up speeds. While South Korea
that the declines observed during the first quarter may did see a 5% quarterly increase, their 0.3% narrowband
be due, at least in part, to delivery of streaming video for adoption rate is still impressively low, and is borne out by
the 2010 Winter Olympics over the Akamai HD Network.2 the connection speed statistics covered earlier in this report.
Levels of broadband adoption continue to be strong In looking at the changes seen on a year-over-year basis,
in many countries/regions, with the top six showing nine of the 12 countries/regions surveyed also saw declining
broadband adoption levels above 50% during the first levels of narrowband adoption. India, China, and the Philippines
quarter. (And Singapore and Australia follow close behind were the only three countries that saw a higher percentage
at 49% and 45% adoption respectively.) From there, there of connections at speeds below 256 Kbps in the first quarter
is a sharp drop off, with the Philippines, India, China, and of 2010 than in the same period a year prior.
Malaysia all coming in below 6% broadband adoption.
4 167
8 33 142 145
109 78
105 66
3 165
47 107
99 100
112 51 93 122
54 112
35 105
Global Country/Region % above QoQ YoY Global Country/Regon % below QoQ YoY
Rank 2 Mbps Change Change Rank 256 Kbps Change Change
3 Hong Kong 90% -1.4% 2.9% 66 India 27% 4.8% 15%
4 South Korea 89% -3.2% 7.9% 78 China 17% 58% 56%
8 Japan 87% -1.6% -2.7% 93 Malaysia 11% -29% -15%
33 Taiwan 64% 6.3% 12% 100 Philippines 7.4% -14% 13%
35 New Zealand 64% -2.4% 4.9% 105 New Zealand 6.3% -8.5% -12%
47 Thailand 52% 37% 316% 107 Thailand 6.1% -22% -46%
51 Singapore 49% -4.6% -9% 112 Australia 5.4% -13% 3.1%
54 Australia 45% 28% -7.3% 122 Singapore 3.2% -72% -65%
99 Philippines 5.6% -1.5% -37% 142 Japan 1.5% 1.8% -5.9%
105 India 4.2% -29% -21% 145 Taiwan 1.4% -31% -15%
109 China 3.5% -43% -27% 165 Hong Kong 0.5% -26% -55%
112 Malaysia 2.8% -62% -13% 167 South Korea 0.3% 5.3% -38%
Building on the data presented in the State of the Internet reports for the 3rd and
4th quarters of 2009, Akamai continues to identify additional mobile networks
for inclusion in the report, and we continue to expand the amount of information
provided for each network. New to the State of the Internet report in the first quarter
of 2010, we are including information on the average maximum1 connection speed
by provider, as well as insight into the average megabytes (MB) downloaded from
Akamai per month per unique IP address associated with the network. As was noted
last quarter, the source data set for this section is subject to the following constraints:
• A minimum of 1,000 unique IP addresses connecting In examining the data shown in Figure 24, we see that there
to Akamai from the network in the first quarter of is an extremely wide range in average connection speeds –
2010 was required for inclusion in the list. oddly enough, the highest (7175 Kbps) and the lowest (105
Kbps) were both seen on providers in Slovakia. Of the 109
• In countries where Akamai had data for multiple
mobile providers listed, 14 had average connection speeds
network providers, only the top three are listed,
in the broadband (2 Mbps or above) range, while 35 had
based on unique IP address count.
average measured connection speeds of 1 Mbps or more.
• The names of specific mobile network providers have As more providers launch HSPA+13 and HSDPA14 networks,
been anonymized, and providers will be identified as well as networks based on LTE and WiMAX technology,
by a unique ID. we expect that these average speeds will increase in the
future. However, given the current congestion on some
• Data is included only for networks where Akamai
mobile networks, and the rapid increase in the consumption
believes that the entire Autonomous System (AS)
of rich media content on mobile devices, these expected
is mobile – that is, if a network provider mixes traffic
increases may occur over a longer period of time.
from fixed/wireline (DSL, cable, etc.) connections with
traffic from mobile connections on a single network
identifier, that AS was not included in the source
data set.
The GSM Association reports that global Mobile Broadband connections roughly
doubled during 2009 to 200 million. By the end of 2010, they estimate this will
reach 342 million global connections, with 120 million in Europe, 116 million
in the Asia Pacific region, and 58 million in North America.
[http://www.gsmworld.com/newsroom/press-releases/2010/4621.htm]
Figure 24: Average and Average Maximum Connection Speed, Average Megabytes Downloaded per Month by Mobile Provider
In examining the data on average maximum1 connection may be making use of such an architecture.) Akamai
speeds, we see that the gap is even wider than that seen is investigating methods of mitigating the impact of
for average speeds, ranging from a staggering 34584 these gateways/proxies on the source data sets that
Kbps on a provider in the United Kingdom to 408 Kbps will be used for future editions of the State of the
on a provider in Belgium. The Slovakian mobile provider Internet report. Having said that, average maximum1
with the highest average connection speed fared very well connection speeds on mobile networks around the
on the average maximum connection speed measurement world were fairly strong, with 83 of the 109 listed
as well, clocking in at 20394 Kbps. However, it must be providers achieving average maximum1 connection
noted that a number of mobile network providers make speeds greater than the 2 Mbps broadband threshold,
heavy use of mobile gateways and proxies that will result 33 achieving average maximum1 connection speeds
in higher average and average maximum1 speeds being greater than the 5 Mbps high broadband threshold,
calculated by Akamai, as these speeds reflect gateway/ and six achieving average maximum1 connection
proxy-to-Akamai communications rather than mobile speeds greater than 10 Mbps.
device-to-Akamai communications. (These top providers
Finally, starting this quarter, we review the average Of these 20 providers, 14 (70%) of them explicitly
amount (MB) of data downloaded from Akamai per advertised support for Apple’s iPhone family of smart-
month per unique IP address seen from the mobile phones, while the remaining six (30%) offer services
network. As Akamai serves content for a number based on next-generation mobile broadband connection
of smartphone makers, we posited that customers technologies such as WiMAX, HSPA+, or HSDPA. Of
of mobile carriers that supported these smartphones the providers where we recorded over 1000 MB/month
would see higher MB/month levels than other carriers. average usage per unique IP address, we found that
In an effort to validate this supposition, we surveyed five of the seven providers supported the Apple iPhone.
the Web sites of the 20 mobile carriers with the highest
On the other end of the spectrum, we found that for
recorded usage levels. (We excluded provider UK-3,
26 mobile providers (of the 109 listed), there was less than
which had ranked highest on the list, due to their
100 MB of data downloaded from Akamai per unique
suspected usage of a mobile gateway architecture,
IP address per month during the first quarter of 2010.
which inflated their calculated per IP address usage.)
Country/Region % Attack Unique IP Avg. Connection Max. Connection % Above % Above % Below
Traffic Addresses Speed (Kbps) Speed (Kbps) 5 Mbps 2 Mbps 256 Kbps
Europe
Austria 0.3% 2,230,464 3818 11108 19% 63% 1.5%
Belgium 0.1% 3,159,936 4768 16509 33% 87% 1.2%
Czech Republic 0.2% 1,658,849 5482 14131 31% 77% 1.2%
Denmark 0.2% 2,127,420 5330 14059 41% 87% 0.7%
Finland 0.1% 2,342,939 3936 10808 23% 51% 0.8%
France 1.5% 22,473,570 3212 11118 9.5% 69% 0.8%
Germany 3.9% 31,012,378 3877 12948 17% 80% 1.4%
Greece 0.2% 2,037,975 3070 12123 5.5% 68% 1.9%
Iceland 0.0% 123,362 4407 14459 20% 81% –
Ireland 0.2% 1,411,789 4968 12962 11% 54% 2.4%
Italy 4.4% 10,669,453 2919 10448 3.7% 66% 2.2%
Luxembourg 0.0% 161,387 3134 10732 9.1% 69% 1.5%
Netherlands 0.5% 52,302 5992 14459 40% 79% 1.7%
Norway 0.1% 2,381,176 4951 13738 25% 69% 1.5%
Portugal 0.5% 2,155,350 3983 16014 24% 78% 0.7%
Spain 1.3% 11,224,801 2539 9340 4.2% 54% 1.3%
Sweden 0.3% 4,146,254 6181 19209 42% 75% 1.9%
Switzerland 0.2% 2,644,304 5294 14891 27% 91% 0.7%
United Kingdom 1.2% 20,114,050 3812 12346 15% 78% 1.2%
Asia/Pacific
Australia 0.3% 8,400,812 2613 9720 10% 45% 5.4%
China 9.1% 57,723,188 695 2732 0.2% 3.5% 17%
Hong Kong 0.3% 2,189,347 9010 29570 45% 90% 0.5%
India 2.2% 3,966,687 796 4672 0.6% 4.2% 27%
Japan 2.9% 33,220,465 7863 25790 60% 87% 1.5%
Malaysia 0.9% 1,436,465 1067 6081 0.5% 2.8% 11%
New Zealand 0.3% 1,310,127 2912 10671 7.7% 64% 6.3%
Singapore 0.4% 1,721,822 2722 11173 11% 49% 3.2%
South Korea 1.7% 16,715,485 12021 32708 65% 89% 0.3%
Taiwan 6.1% 6,041,143 4334 14053 20% 64% 1.4%
Middle East
Egypt 0.3% 1,067,623 750 4472 0.3% 4.8% 16%
Israel 0.7% 1,836,778 2988 10922 4.2% 62% 0.2%
Kuwait 0.1% 234,633 1392 6229 1.7% 17% 8.7%
Saudi Arabia 0.6% 1,339,271 2189 7213 1.8% 49% 1.2%
Sudan 0.0% 24,360 383 2185 – – 44%
Syria 0.0% 88,098 3034 5911 17% 56% 21%
United Arab Emirates (UAE) 0.2% 739,970 1225 5248 2.8% 13% 7.4%
Latin & South America
Argentina 2.4% 3,620,142 1426 6196 0.5% 16% 8.1%
Brazil 6.0% 11,381,433 1271 5043 2.0% 14% 18%
Chile 0.4% 1,989,659 2202 8896 2.0% 42% 3.1%
Colombia 1.2% 2,319,106 1530 6248 0.3% 22% 6.6%
Mexico 0.4% 7,767,481 1278 5540 0.4% 9.2% 2.1%
Peru 0.6% 616,377 1012 5852 0.5% 5.7% 3.6%
Venezuela 0.3% 1,901,287 705 3217 – 0.7% 13%
North America
Canada 1.5% 11,729,224 4796 14590 34% 80% 2.1%
United States 10% 129,354,234 4684 16207 25% 56% 4.3%
1
T he “average maximum connection speed” metric represents an average of the maximum measured connection
speeds across all of the unique IP addresses seen by Akamai from a particular geography. The average is used in
order to mitigate the impact of unrepresentative maximum measured connection speeds. In contrast to the average
measured connection speed, the average maximum connection speed metric is more representative of what many
end-user Internet connections are capable of. (This includes the application of so-called speed boosting technologies that
may be implemented within the network by providers, in order to deliver faster download speeds for some larger files.)
2
T he Akamai HD Network leverages HTTP to provide adaptive bitrate streaming. Streams for the 2010 Winter
Olympics were encoded by the broadcasters at six unique bitrates between 350 Kbps and 3.45 Mbps – all below
the “high broadband” threshold of 5 Mbps, with four of the six bitrates below the “broadband” threshold of 2 Mbps.
As such, because the streams would have been rate-limited to those bitrates (due to the encoding rates), this may have
impacted the percentage of connections to Akamai in excess of 5 Mbps. Similar to the impact of data from mobile
networks in prior quarter, and the subsequent filtering of such data, Akamai plans to implement similar filtering
of such rate-limited content, as appropriate, from future State of the Internet data sets.
3
http://www.akamai.com/dl/whitepapers/How_will_the_internet_scale.pdf
4
http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/
5
http://www.akamai.com/html/misc/hdnetwork.html
6
http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2009/press_092909.html
7
http://www.telegeography.com/cu/search.php?search_term=DOCSIS&Submit=Submit
8
http://www.telegeography.com/cu/search.php?search_term=FTTH&Submit=Submit
9
http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/products/edgescape.html
10
http://www.telecomsinsight.com/file/85761/New-Zealands-Ultra-Fast-Broadband-Proposals-Submitted.html
11
http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=32560
12
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/05/uh-oh-telcos-93-of-australia-getting-govt-run-fiber.ars
13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSPA%2B
14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Speed_Downlink_Packet_Access
Your time will be well spent during this revolutionary event. We look forward to seeing you in Miami!
Join Akamai and more than 500 other Internet revolutionaries
for the 3rd Annual Akamai Global Customer Conference.
During our three-day program, we will explore some of the recent challenges and opportunities
that have taken hold and are defining how business is done online. Trends including the growth
of cloud computing models for enterprise-class applications, the adoption of high definition (HD)
video online, the optimization of mobile content for Internet-connected devices, the realization
of secure e-commerce, and the shift of advertising dollars online to follow the migration of
audiences to new media.
With so many technological advancements for leveraging the Internet, as well as public and
private “cloud” infrastructure, it is imperative for today’s online business leaders to have a forum
to discuss these developments with peers from other leading organizations from around the globe.
Acknowledgements
EDITOR: David Belson
CONTRIBUTOR: Jon Thompson
CONTRIBUTOR: Patrick Gilmore
CONTRIBUTOR: Alloysius Gideon
EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Brad Rinklin
EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Tom Leighton