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Akamai Q1 2012 State of the Internet Report
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3. Letter From the Editor
This issue of the State of the Internet report marks the beginning of the fifth year of the report’s publication.
With the start of this fifth volume, we are taking the opportunity to introduce some changes to the report:
• The report has defined “broadband” as connections to Akamai at speeds of 2 Mbps or greater for the last
four years. Going forward, we are revising the definition with a 4 Mbps threshold. This brings it into line
with the definition used as part of the United States National Broadband Plan, as well as with target speeds
in the European Union and China.
• The report has defined “high broadband” as connections to Akamai at speeds of 5 Mbps or greater for the
last four years. Going forward, we are revising the definition with a 10 Mbps threshold. Many countries and
regions (such as the European Union) have longer-term connection speed targets in the tens or hundreds of
Mbps, gigabit projects are underway in many countries, and in countries with established broadband infra-
structure and multiple service providers, advertised service tiers above 10 Mbps are generally affordable by
most subscribers. As such, we believe our revised definition aligns well with the current state of connectivity,
and should accommodate expected future growth and improvements in Internet connectivity.
• The report has defined “narrowband” as connections to Akamai at speeds of 256 kbps or below.
As connection speeds continue to increase globally, especially in countries with developing infrastructure,
the number of connections that Akamai sees at these levels continues to decline. As such, we have
decided to remove narrowband adoption statistics from the report going forward.
• The report will also no longer include city-level data due to the level of manual effort required to review the
data. In addition, the report will also no longer include insight into attack traffic originating from mobile net-
works, as we work behind the scenes to enhance and expand the data sources used to identify such traffic.
We expect to continue to make additional changes, additions, and improvements across the remaining 2012 issues,
as outlined in last quarter’s “Letter From The Editor”.
In line with our goal of moving more of the State of the Internet online, Akamai is also working to make additional
insights from our platform available through “Akamai IO,” a destination site that strives to deepen understanding
of the Akamai Intelligent Platform through data and visualizations derived from usage of the platform by thousands
of enterprise customers and millions of end users around the world. Akamai IO is available at www.akamai.com/io;
it includes an initial data set that highlights browser usage across PC and mobile devices, connecting via fixed and
mobile networks.
As always, if you have questions, comments, or suggestions about the State of the Internet report, connect with
us via e-mail at stateoftheinternet@akamai.com, or on Twitter at @akamai_soti.
– David Belson