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New Zealand fast broadband connections double in 2013
Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report shows 6.7 percent of New Zealand internet connections were above 10Mbps in the third quarter of 2013.
Although that's a rise of 133 percent on the previous year, our speeds are still a long way behind the rest of the world. According to Akamai we rank 38, that's one place behind Australia and a long way behind South Korea where 71 percent of connections are about 10Mbps.
You could interpret those numbers as showing the investment and disruption of the government's Ultrafast Broadband project means we are keeping pace with the rest of the world, not pulling up the table.
When it comes to broadband speeds of greater than 4Mbps New Zealand ranks at 41 in the world with 55 percent of connections operating at that level. In this table we are slightly ahead of Australia at 44.
Average connection speeds in New Zealand were 5.3Mbps, that's behind the 5.8Mbps in Australia, but comfortably about the global average of 3.8Mbps. Average peak connection speeds were 21Mbps, well behind Australia which gets an average peak of 32.5Mbps.
Poor mobile broadband showing
New Zealand's average mobile connection speed at the end of 2013 was just 2,5Mbps, less than half the 5.4Mbps average in Australia. That puts our mobile broadband well behind most of Europe and North America. New Zealand's peak mobile broadband speed of 11.9Mbps was less than one tenth of the 135.6Mbps peak in Australia.
Akamai reports for traffic from mobile devices on all networks, Apple Mobile Safari was responsible for just over 47 percent of requests, while Android Webkit drove only 32 percent of requests.
Bill Bennett
Freelance journalist.
Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.
Bennett's The Download Weekly newsletter is published every Friday. You can sign up for it here.
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