20th globally, average US broadband speed 11.7 Mbps

Akamai Technologies released its Second Quarter 2015 State of the Internet Report, which found that the average broadband speed across the United States is 11.7 Mbps, up 2 percent since the second quarter of 2014. Data gathered from Akamai’s global “Intelligent Platform” showed that the US ranked 20th in the world in average broadband speed.

In the first quarter, the study says, the states (and the District of Columbia) with the highest average broadband speeds “showed gains across the board.” Notably, the states with the fastest speeds are places in which fiber networks compete with cable, driving investment in higher speed networks. But the study also found that those gains slowed in the second quarter and in some places like Delaware the average broadband speed declined:

… the District of Columbia posted the largest quarterly gain at 10%, moving into the top spot in the country with an average connection speed of 19.0 Mbps. Delaware, which held the top ranking in the first quarter, slipped to second place in the second quarter with a 10% quarterly loss, the largest among the top 10. The other declining states saw fairly minimal losses of less than 3%, while increases among gaining states ranged from 3.5% in New York to 8.9% in Maryland. Five states had average connection speeds above the 15 Mbps threshold—down from six in the previous quarter.

The United States ranked 20th globally for average broadband speed with 11.7 Mbps. This average speed puts the US behind first-ranked South Korea (23.1 Mbps), second-ranked Hong Kong (17.0 Mbps), and third-ranked Japan (16.4 Mbps), as well as much of Europe:

Second Quarter State of the Internet Report (Akamai Technologies, Sept. 2015)