Minnesota makes some Top 10 Akamai rankings

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Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the latest Akamai report on broadband speed in the US and beyond. Here are a few facts as highlighted on their press release:

Internet Penetration
In the third quarter of 2010, over 533 million unique IP addresses, from 235 countries/regions, connected to the Akamai network. This represents 6.6% more IP addresses than the second quarter of 2010, and 20% more than the same quarter a year ago.

Global Connection Speeds
Globally, the average connection speed once again increased, both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, reaching nearly 2 Mbps. Taiwan’s 24% quarterly growth was the most significant among the top 10 countries/regions, enabling it to achieve an average connection speed of 5 Mbps. In examining the average peak speeds around the world, only four countries/regions had speeds of 30 Mbps or more – South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Romania.

Fastest U.S. States
The overall average connection speed for the U.S. as a whole in the third quarter of 2010 was 5.0 Mbps. Delaware continued to maintain its standing as the state with the fastest average connection speed. The overall average peak connection speed in the U.S. during the third quarter was 20 Mbps. In looking at high broadband adoption in the U.S. during the third quarter, trending was mostly positive. Quarterly increases in high broadband adoption of 10% or more were seen in 23 states and the District of Columbia, with New Mexico topping the list at 60% growth. In reviewing year-over-year changes in U.S. broadband adoption, four states (Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, and Alabama) grew more than 100% year-over-year, with Alaska’s massive 191% growth leading the way.

And here’s some of the Minnesota-specific information that always catches my eye.

The good news is that Minnesota actually made the top 10 list a few places. Akamai does not give an exhaustive list of state rankings, only the highlights, so it’s nice when Minnesota makes the list. Also it means a step closer to the Minnesota broadband goal to be one of the top five states in terms of broadband speed – if you want to look at averaged speed measured. (And since Minnesota stresses ubiquity, I think we can glean that averaged speed is important to us.)

Also St Paul made the list of Average Measured Connection Speed, Top United States Cities by Speed



2 thoughts on “Minnesota makes some Top 10 Akamai rankings”

  1. Hi Ann,

    I do not know how MN could have a 100 percent increase in broadband adoption. I think that we had more than 50% adoption previously. Can you investigate?

    Reply ↓

  2. think they’re looking at percentage of connections above 5 Mbps – or what they are calling high broadband connectivity.

    In the 2009 Minnesota Broadband Task Force Report, Minnesota was ranked 23 – but the actual percentage of connectivity over 5 Mbps isn’t listed (Akamai only reports on top 10). For what it’s worth, number 10 (Maryland) had 34 percent.

    Late last year, Connect Minnesota reported that Minnesota broadband subscribers who know their download speeds
    report an average speed of 5.9 Mbps. But more than half didn’t know their speeds. http://www.connectmn.org/_documents/MN_Res_FINAL_110410.pdf

    So there’s a lot of guesswork going on – and we’d still be looking at something different – average speed, not percent of users over 5 Mbps.

    So there’s some light – but not exactly a crystal clear picture.

    Reply ↓

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