In the second quarter of 2013, average connection speeds grew 9.2 percent year-over-year, with nine of the top 10 countries studied seeing growth of more than 10 percent, according to Akamai.

Globally, 127 countries studied saw a year-over-year increase in average connection speeds, ranging from 0.6 percent in Argentina (to 2 Mbps) to 262 percent in Côte d'Ivoire (to 1.6 Mbps).

Global high-speed broadband (>10 Mbps) adoption rose to 14 percent, based on a 13 percent quarter-over-quarter increase.

Global broadband (>4 Mbps) improved 11 percent on the quarter, and the second quarter of  2013 marked the first time that half of all connections to Akamai from around the world took place at speeds of at least 4 Mbps.

Year-over-year, global average peak connection speeds grew 17 percent in the second quarter of 2013, according to Akamai. Yearly growth rates among the top 10 countries ranged from 14 percent in South Korea to 61 percent in both Singapore and Taiwan.

Around the rest of the world, all but six qualifying countries/regions saw yearly growth in average peak connection speeds, ranging from 8.5 percent in Bermuda (to 13.4 Mbps) to increases of more than 200 percent in Bahrain (284 percent to 40.3 Mbps) and Iraq (274 percent to 27.3 Mbps).

Quarter-over-quarter, the global average connection speed rose 5.2 percent to 3.3 Mbps (up from 3.1 Mbps). A total of 129 countries studied saw average connection speeds increase in the second quarter, ranging from 0.1 percent in Bulgaria (to 6.7 Mbps) to 93 percent in Sudan (to 2.1 Mbps).

Global average peak connection speeds increased slightly during the second quarter of 2013, up 0.1 percent to 18.9 Mbps.

Among the top 10 countries that saw higher average peak connection speeds in the quarter, increases ranged from 3.1 percent in Japan (to 48.8 Mbps) to 22 percent in Taiwan (to 39.5 Mbps). Hong Kong continued to maintain the number one ranking at 65.1 Mbps, and South Korea crossed the 50 Mbps threshold, coming in second at 53.3 Mbps, Akamai reports.

During the second quarter of 2013, average connection speeds on surveyed mobile networks ranged from a high of 9.7 Mbps to a low of 0.5 Mbps.

Eleven networks had average connection speeds in the broadband (>4 Mbps) range, and 62 operators showed average connection speeds above 1 Mbps.

The volume of mobile data grew 14 percent during the quarter and nearly doubled year-over-year.