Akamai data. Akamai’s Q3 State of the Internet report shows average connection speeds in Kenya rose more than three times in the past year. Akamai delivers more traffic, more places, than any other content delivery network. They have data on 144 countries, generally with a statistically valid sample. The reported 11 Mbps in Kenya is higher than the 9.7 Mbps in the United Kingdom.
Having listened to Safaricom CTO Thibaud Rerolle describe his network, I’m not surprised Kenya is doing well. However, the Akamai figures have important limits. To begin with, most of Kenya’s connections are on mobile, but Akamai’s figures are (mostly) based on landlines. They only include IPv4 data when an increasing share of the traffic is IPv6. Akamai’s average connection speeds are much lower than other measures. Most speed tests are based on large files; Akamai is looking at much smaller files, such as the 100 html requests seen on many web pages. I’m unsure how to work with the different figures; pointers to reliable data on the various measurements very welcome.
“Year over year, on a global basis, the average connection speed increased 21%.
All of the top 10 countries/regions saw increases in the third quarter, just like the second. Gains ranged from 11% in the Netherlands to 45% in Singapore. Worldwide, average connection speed improvements were seen in 137 countries/regions, compared with 132 in the preceding quarter, and yearly increases ranged from 0.1% in the Bahamas (to 7.6 Mbps) to 335% in Kenya (to 11.0 Mbps)”
I’m too happy to see the advances in Africa to nitpick the data.