Broadband29.03.2015

Massive broadband shock for South Africa

By Staff Writer

Akamai has released its Q4 2014 State of the Internet report, which shows that South Africa is the only country in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region which failed to meet basic broadband standards.

The report further showed that South Africa’s average broadband speed and average peak broadband speed significantly declined quarter-over-quarter.

Akamai’s State of the Internet report is based on data gathered from the company’s “Intelligent Platform”, and provides insights into global connectivity and Internet metrics.

The latest report showed that South Africa performed dismally when it came to broadband speeds and broadband adoption rates.

Average broadband speeds

According to the report, the global average connection speed remained 4.5Mbps, virtually unchanged from the third quarter.

South Korea has the highest average connection speed at 22.2Mbps, despite a 12% decline from the third quarter.

South Africa recorded an average broadband speed of 3.2Mbps – the only country in the EMEA region which failed to meet the “broadband” threshold of 4Mbps.

A further shock was that South Africa showed a decline in average broadband speeds – down 9.9% quarter-to-quarter.

Average Connection Speed

Average peak connection speeds

The average global peak connection during Q4 2014 was 26.9Mbps. This figure represents the average of the maximum measured connection speeds across all of the unique IP addresses seen by Akamai.

Hong Kong recorded the highest average peak connection speed in Q4 2014 – 87.7Mbps.

In South Africa, the average peak connection speed was 15.1Mbps – the worst in the EMEA region.

South Africa also showed a quarter-to-quarter decline of 12% in peak average broadband speeds.

Average Peak Connection Speed

Mobile broadband connectivity

Average mobile connection speeds ranged from a high of 16.0Mbps in the United Kingdom to a low of 1.0Mbps in New Caledonia in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Average peak mobile connection speeds were up significantly from the third quarter, ranging from 157.3Mbps in Singapore to 7.5Mbps in Argentina.

South Africa had an average mobile connection speed of 1.5Mbps, much lower than its African counterparts Egypt (2.9Mbps) and Morocco (3.0Mbps).

South Africa’s average peak mobile connection speed of 7.7Mbps was also much lower than Egypt (18.5Mbps) and Morocco (35.8Mbps).

Mobile speeds

Broadband (>4Mbps) adoption rate

In the fourth quarter of 2014, global broadband (>4Mbps) adoption declined slightly quarter-over-quarter to 59%.

Bulgaria – at 96% – overtook South Korea as the country with the highest broadband adoption rate.

South Africa’s broadband adoption rate of 19% is the lowest of all countries listed in the EMEA region. It also represented a quarterly decline of 17%.

South Africa was the only country in the EMEA region that did not have more than 60% of its unique IP addresses connecting to Akamai at average speeds above 4Mbps in the fourth quarter.

Broadband Connectivity

Global high broadband (>10Mbps) adoption rates

Globally, high broadband (>10Mbps) adoption grew by 2.9% quarterly to 24%, and South Korea – at 79% – remained the country with the highest level of high broadband adoption.

South Africa had a dismal 2.6% high broadband adoption rate – a quarterly decline of 24%.