Unfortunately it’s no surprise that Australia only came 48th in a global ranking of broadband speed. But here’s the real shocker: New Zealand came 39th.
According to Akamai’s State Of The Internet Report, the average Australian Internet connection has a speed of 2.8Mbps, while New Zealanders enjoy a slightly less glacial 3.3Mbps. Akamai runs “content server networks” which essentially serve as giant corporate-funded caches that ensure that we don’t wait quite as long as we might otherwise every time a menu item changes in iTunes and we have to download a 90MB patch.
Before I completely destroy any sense of Pacific solidarity, there are much worse results in the region: in China, for instance, manages a measly 865Kbps. And as usual South Korea tops the charts, with 16.6Mbps. Weirdly the US only managed 4.5Mbps, which goes to show unlimited downloads don’t necessarily equate with unlimited speed.