Akamai's global Internet report details increased adoption and growth of broadband speed

State of the Internet: Globally, Broadband Continues to Grow [GigaOM]

Content delivery network Akamai is preparing to release its latest quarterly report on the Internet which will show that in the last six months the global Internet has grown by 5 percent, measured by the number of unique IP addresses. From this point last year, the global Internet has grown over 27 percent. In the U.S., the number of unique IP address has grown 20 percent since the second quarter of 2008. In China, over the same period, unique IPs grew by 37 percent.

In terms of speed, Akamai notes that in the first quarter of 2009, just over 20 percent of all Internet users globally were connected via a broadband connection with a speed of 5 Mbps or greater. In the U.S., the number of broadband connections above 5 Mbps is 26 percent of all Internet users, ranking this country 12th in broadband speeds internationally. With nearly 40% of all broadband connections still being provided by slower DSL technology, it should come as no surprise that the US is not higher up in the rankings.  Sitting atop that list is Japan, where 57 percent of all Internet users connect with a broadband speed of 5 Mbps or better.

In terms of the U.S., Delaware has the largest percentage of high-speed broadband users, with 62 percent of all that state's Internet users connecting on a 5 Mbps or faster connection. Akamai even measures the percentage of connections above 25 Mbps, and in the U.S, Utah has the highest percentage of users connected at faster than 25 Mbps with 4.5 percent of Internet users in that state connected at those very high speeds.