Australia’s Internet Is Falling (Further) Behind Rest Of The World

A recent worldwide report looking at internet connectivity shows Australia is well and truly lagging behind other nations in our region, and the rest of the world.

The report comes from Akamai, one of the world’s largest content delivery networks. Once per quarter the network publishes a report called “State of the Internet” to show any changes in international internet competitiveness.

In the most recent publication, Australia’s average internet speed is: 9.6 megabytes per second.

Our speed actually puts us just underneath the threshold to be considered a broadband nation. According to Akamai, broadband takes 25 megabytes per second. Clearly, we have a lot of catching up to do. (Awkward…)

Akamai has ranked Australia as 50th in the world for average internet access speeds. A quarter of all 196 countries in the world, both developing and developed, have faster net speeds.

So uh, perhaps the NBN isn’t performing to optimal capacity?

It’s a pretty safe to say it seems that other countries are just more committed to putting the big bucks into internet infrastructure. Take for instance the Philippines, where the government has just decided to invest in a new department to roll out high-speed wireless and fibre connections through the entire country.

Meanwhile, Australia’s internet speed improvements are stagnating. In fact, only 28 per cent of Australians can access the internet at speeds above 10 megabytes per second.

A satisfaction report from research company Ipsos revealed Australians aren’t happy with their internet speed or reliability. Only a measly 38 per cent of Australians surveyed described their broadband as “very or fairly good”. Meanwhile in South Korea, 70 per cent of respondents said they were stoked with their internet.

Basically, we want faster internet, and we want it now.

Photo: Giphy and Fox