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Global broadband speeds over 4 Mbps, DDoS attacks down 15%

2014-09-30 09:23 by Daniela
Tags: Akamai, broadband

Akamai Technologies has released its Second Quarter, 2014 State of the Internet Report. Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform, the report provides insight into key global statistics such as connection speeds and broadband adoption across fixed and mobile networks, overall attack traffic, global 4K readiness, IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 implementation, and traffic patterns across leading Web properties and digital media providers.

The global average connection speed increased 21% from the first to second quarter of the year and 40% for the past year. At 4.6 Mbps, the global average connection speed exceeded the 4 Mbps "broadband" threshold for the first time.

Following the introduction of "4K Readiness" in the First Quarter, 2014 State of the Internet Report, Akamai has again identified candidate geographies that are most likely to sustain connection speeds above 15 Mbps, as Ultra HD adaptive bitrate streams typically require bandwidth between 10 and 20 Mbps. The findings do not account for other "readiness" factors, including availability of 4K-encoded content or 4K-capable televisions and media players.

In total, 51 countries/regions qualified for inclusion this quarter, and 12% of connections globally were at or above the 15 Mbps threshold. This is up 17% over last quarter's 11% readiness rate. South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan topped the list, at 62%, 34% and 33%, respectively. Year over year, the global 4K readiness rate nearly doubled, growing by 98% to 12% of all connections at 15 Mbps or above.

The report also examines the percentage of connections to Akamai from mobile network providers at "broadband" speeds (more than 4 Mbps). In the second quarter, Denmark reported the highest level of mobile broadband adoption at 92%, whereas Brazil, Croatia, Paraguay, Vietnam and Bolivia all had mobile broadband adoption rates below 1%.

The State of the Internet Report also includes insight into DDoS attacks based on reports from Akamai's customers. Akamai customers reported 270 DDoS attacks in the second quarter, down from 283 in the first quarter, marking the second consecutive quarter with a decline and a drop of 15% year over year. This trend supports assertions from the Prolexic Q2 Global DDoS Attack Report, suggesting that volumetric attacks targeting Layers 1-4 have increased while application attacks targeting Layers 5-7 have declined.

In the second quarter of 2014, Akamai observed attack traffic originating from 161 unique countries/regions, which was 33 fewer than the first quarter of the year. According to Akamai's observations, the highest concentration of attacks (43%) came from China. Observed traffic from second-place Indonesia more than doubled quarter over quarter to reach 15%, while the United States followed with 13%, up slightly from last quarter's 11%.