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[it news] Akamai’s latest State of the Internet was a shot in the arm for supporters of the National Broadband Network, reporting that Australia was in the bottom half of nations in the Asia-Pacific for broadband speeds and slower than neighbour New Zealand.

The content-distribution service Akamai rated Australia, with an average connection speed of 2.6Mbps at 50th fastest broadband nation in the world; New Zealand with an average speed of 2.9Mbps was 42nd.

Russia was only slightly slower than Australia, recording an average speed of 2.1Mbps.

But Akamai, the company known for data centres that shunted internet traffic for suchqueen high-profile events as the World Cup and Mars Pathfinder missions, awarded Australia most-improved in the region with average broadband speeds lifting 19 percent in the quarter while most countries’ performances were static or diminished.

South Korea was again the fastest on the planet with an average and maximum speeds of 12Mbps and 32.7Mbps, respectively.

It was followed by Hong Kong with an average speed of 9Mbps and Japan (7.8Mbps). The US was 16th globally with average speeds of 4.7Mbps.

Australia scores a C on Akamai broadband report card