Global broadband zooms, U.S. penetration is over 80 percent

Did you know that Bulgaria has the highest level of broadband adoption, at 96 percent? Or that the average connection speed in South Korea is 16.7 megabits per second (Mbps) versus the global average connection speed of 2.7 Mbps? These are some of the fun facts included in Akamai’s (s AKAM) “State of the Internet” report for the third quarter of 2011. The company will release its report later this week.

South Korean and Japanese cities dominate the top 100 cities list. Amsterdam is the fastest city in Europe (ranked No. 33), and San Jose was once again the fastest city in the United States, with an average connection speed of 13 Mbps. It was ranked at No. 13 among the top 100 and was one of the 23 U.S. cities that made the list. Other U.S. cities in the top 100 include Plano, Texas (8.9 Mbps); Fremont, Calif. (8.6 Mbps); North Bergen, N.J. (8.5 Mbps); and Jersey City, N.J. (8.2 Mbps).

One of the biggest trends according to the report is growing mobile broadband speeds. “Average connection speeds on known mobile providers ranged from 6.1 Mbps down to 327 kbps, while average peak connection speeds in the quarter ranged from 22.2 Mbps to 1.4 Mbps,” the report data shows.

Here are some other notable facts from the report:

• The global average connection speed continued to see extremely strong yearly growth, increasing 39 percent from the third quarter of 2010.
• The global average peak connection speed grew 45 percent from the third quarter of 2010 to 11.7 Mbps in Q3 2011. South Korea is the country with the highest average peak connection speed, at 46.8 Mbps. Hong Kong also had an average peak connection speed above 40 Mbps, while Romania, Japan and Latvia were all above 30 Mbps.
• India finally achieved a 10 percent broadband adoption rate, which China had achieved in the second quarter.
• Despite rapid growth, China and India are only two countries with high broadband adoption of 1 percent or less. China stands at 1 percent adoption, and India has a 0.6 percent adoption. Akamai deems connections faster than 5 Mbps as “high broadband.”
• In the third quarter of 2011, global broadband adoption (2 Mbps or higher) grew 1.6 percent to reach 66 percent. The United States now has 81 percent broadband adoption, the report says.
• By average speeds, the Netherlands might be the fastest in Europe (9.5 Mbps), but when it comes to peak speeds, the Romanian city of Timişoara leaves it in the dust at 41.5 Mbps.