According to the latest report by Akamai Technologies Global Internet Platform on the State of the Internet in Africa, Nigeria has the fastest internet speed in the continent.

Nigeria has overtaken South Africa in terms of Internet speed. This is coming less than eleven years after reforming its communications networks and market.

The report revealed that Nigeria has an average connection speed of 322kbps with a peak rate of 5674kbps. South Africa on the other hand has a faster average speed of 496kbps, but the country’s peak speed is only half that of Nigeria, at 2172kbps.

“All mobile providers had average peak connection speeds above 2 mbps, though last place South African provider, ZA-1 was just above the threshold, losing over 13 per cent from the prior quarter, at 2.2 mbps,” IT News Africa reported.

According to Leadership, “in 2011 South Africa was one of only two countries listed in the report with an average peak connection speed below 2 mbps. South Africa had average 442kbps over Nigeria’s 286kbps, however, Nigeria outperformed with peak 4871kbps and average 462mbps per month over South Africa’s 1654kbps and 197mbps.”

The report also noted that speeds across the globe were improving, and that all 117 countries that qualified for inclusion measured an increase in average connection speeds.

Akamai Technologies is a leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device. Based on data gathered, the report provides insight into key global statistics such as Internet penetration, mobile connection speeds, origins of attack traffic, and global and regional connection speeds.

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Improved internet speed is an indication of improvement in Nigeria’s communication sector. With West African Cable System (WACS), Main One Cable and Glo-1 supporting SAT1 operated by Nigeria’s NITEL, it is expected that as telecom operators connect the hinterland, internet traffic would triple.

 
Source: http://dailypost.com.ng/2012/08/22/state-internet-report-nigeria-fastest-internet-speed-africa/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=state-internet-report-nigeria-fastest-internet-speed-africa