Delaware continues to have among the highest Internet speeds, according to the quarterly report of Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform, the report provides insight into global statistics such as connection speeds.
Delaware ranked in the top five among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. in five categories that included average connection speed by state and other measurements of adoption of high-speed connections.
Delaware has been aided by population density in the northern part of the state and competition between Verizon FiOS and Comcast in many areas. The state and counties are also working to improve connection speeds in portions of Kent and Sussex counties.
All 50 states saw gains in Internet connection speeds, according to the report.
The increase in improved speeds was led by led by Alaska with a 34 percent increase (to 13.1 Mbps). Ten other states saw gains of at least 20 percent compared with the preceding year. Colorado had the smallest yearly increase at 4.4 percent (to 14.2 Mbps). Among the top 10, yearly increases ranged from 9.5 percent in Delaware to 25 percent in the District of Columbia.
“Internet connection speeds continued to show positive long-term trends around the world, with particularly strong year-over-year increases across all broadband adoption metrics,” said David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report. “When Akamai first published the report in 2008, we defined ‘high broadband’ as 5 Mbps and above, which nine years ago had an adoption rate of 16 percent globally. We’re now seeing a 15 Mbps adoption rate of 25 percent worldwide. The upward trends are encouraging as businesses create and deliver even richer experiences for bigger audiences across the Internet, but accentuate the need for organizations to optimize those experiences for the myriad connected devices their customers are using.”
Data and graphics from the Fourth Quarter, 2016 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.
