Dive Brief:

• The U.S. now ranks 10th globally when it comes to internet speed, according to Akamai’s new State of the Internet Report. South Korea ranked number one, followed by Norway, Sweden and Hong Kong.
• Globally, fixed internet connection speeds improved 2.3% from last quarter. The average was 7.2 megabits per second. In the U.S., Washington, D.C. had the fastest average internet connectivity at 28.1 Mbps. The fastest state was Delaware at 25 Mbps, while the slowest is Idaho at 12 Mbps.
• "Increases in connection speeds and broadband penetration have helped enable the internet to support levels of traffic that even just a few years ago would have been unimaginable," said David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report.

Dive Insight:

It’s the first time the U.S. has been in the top 10. Experts says internet service provider upgrades in the U.S. are at least partially to thank. Still, the U.S. average fixed internet speed of 18.7 Mpbs is a long way from South Korea’s 28.6 Mbps.

Considering almost all of the major service providers reside in the U.S., it seems the U.S. should have the fastest average speeds. And while number of users with fast connections in the U.S. is rising, it’s still surprisingly slow. Part of the problem may be access. About one-third of U.S. neighborhoods don't have access to internet providers offering broadband, according to the FCC.

Despite improvements in internet speeds globally, there have been occasional disruptions over the last quarter, according to the report. For example, traffic to Gabon dropped to approximately 25% of normal levels for two days in February due to an outage of unknown cause. On a few other occasions, submarine cables were cut and caused disruptions in other countries. In the U.S., there were occasional slowdowns but no major outages.