In today's communication world, speed is king! 

We are getting accustomed to ever faster broadband speeds and mobile connectivity, and are always impatiently tapping our fingers if a too large photo file doesn't download instantaneously.  How did we survive in 2008?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, when we travel we start to see the discrepancies between download and upload speeds from country to country.  Some national providers keep us happy, and then there are the times like when I was on a small island in Indonesia and I needed to download a file … and it just wasn't happening.  I was ready to throw a coconut at my MacBook Air!
 
So it was with interest that I read Akamai's quarterly report (3rd quarter 2010) on The State of the Internet.  Not surprisingly, Asia is paving the way for ever-faster broadband and mobile speeds, investing heavily in infrastructure, while the 'developed' world is lagging behind.
 
Broadband Adoption
 
'From a global connection speed perspective, South Korea continued to have the highest level of 'high broadband' (>5 Mbps) connectivity, with 72% of connections to Akamai at speeds above 5 Mbps. South Korea also maintained the highest average connection speed, at 14 Mbps, and recorded the highest average peak connection speed, at 39 Mbps.

Cities in South Korea and Japan continued to hold many of the top spots in the rankings of highest average and average peak connection speeds by city as well.'
 
A positive trend from the reports is that in the 3rd quarter in 2010, all of the top 10 countries, including the USA, achieved average connection speeds that met or exceeded the 'high broadband' threshold of 5 Mbps.

Follow the link to read the entire article:

www.webintravel.com//blog/asia-rules-supreme-in-broadband-and-mobile-connectivity_1563