One quarter of U.S. broadband users connected at speeds above 10 Mbps in the first quarter of 2013, according to Akamai’s latest “State of the Internet” Report. That’s a steep increase measured on both a quarterly and annual basis, representing a 14% jump over the previous quarter and a 69% jump over the same quarter of 2012.
Almost all states shared in the steep growth, with 41 states seeing their percentage of broadband users connecting at speeds above 10 Mbps increase by at least 50% or more between 1Q 2012 and 1Q 2013. Of those, three states – Missouri, Michigan and New Jersey – saw increases above 100%.
The 10 states with the highest average connection rates all had average connection rates above 10 Mbps. This group included Utah, eight eastern states and the District of Columbia. Vermont had the highest connection speed, which measured 12.7 Mbps for the quarter.
Nearly half (48%) of broadband users in New Hampshire get average speeds above 10 Mbps. Nine other eastern states had 35% or more of broadband users connecting at 10 Mbps speeds or higher.
Only three U.S. states had less than 10% of broadband users connecting at average speeds above 10 Mbps. Those states were Hawaii (9.3%), Idaho (7.5%) and Arkansas (4.4%).
The average U.S. connection speed is now 8.6 Mbps, Akamai said. That’s an increase of 7.4% from the previous quarter and 27% from the same quarter one year earlier.
