New report sheds light on state of the Internet

Akamai Technologies has released the third edition of its quarterly “State of the Internet” report.

Global connectivity saw big advances in the third quarter, with various undersea cable projects getting underway or nearing completion, the commercial launch of WiMAX services in a number of countries, and the announcement of fiber-to-the-premises services that will bring gigabit-speed connections to subscribers in Japan, the Ukraine and the Netherlands.

While global Internet penetration remained stable compared to the second quarter of 2008, there were some interesting trends seen in U.S.-based traffic. Delaware, Washington, Virginia, Texas and Georgia all experienced quarterly declines of more than 40 percent for narrowband connectivity (<256Kb/s) as compared to the second quarter.

South Dakota, Maine and Hawaii nearly doubled their rates of high broadband connectivity (>5Mb/s) quarter over quarter, while Oklahoma and Kentucky are the only two U.S. states to see consecutive quarter over quarter growth in high broadband connectivity since Q4 2007. Virginia, Massachusetts and New Jersey have the highest levels of Internet penetration in the United States.

To download a copy of the report, visit www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet.