Analysis reveals South Korea the fastest country to download games, most reliable; Eastern Europe dominant in Top 10; US "above average" at 26th
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A study released today by Pando Networks, the leading digital game delivery company, revealed the speed and reliability of Internet connections around the globe with some surprising findings. Based on 27 million downloads by 20 million computers in 224 countries from January through June 2011, the study provides a comprehensive look at worldwide data accessibility, singling out the very best and the very worst places to download online games. Pando Networks delivers online games such as Riot Games' League of Legends, Nexon's Maple Story and Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online.
The average worldwide download speed is 580KBps. While South Korea leading the list with a blazingly fast average speed of 2,202KBps may not come as much of a surprise, the small eastern European nations of Romania (1,909KBps) and Bulgaria (1,611KBps) unexpectedly claimed the second and third highest speeds. In fact, eastern European nations dominated the top of the list with Lithuania in fourth at 1,462KBps, Latvia in fifth at 1,377KBps and Ukraine in eighth at 1,190KBps. The completion rate for measured downloads closely correlates with average speed, South Korea again taking top prize with a 94% completion rate and most of the other speedy countries not far behind.
Other notable countries studied included the USA with an average of 616KBps, Germany at 647KBps, Australia at 348KBps, and China at 245KBps.
The fastest six cities were located in South Korea. Andover, Massachusetts (USA) (2,801KBps) and Bucharest, Romania (2,665KBps) are the only cities outside of South Korea to break into the top 10. The slowest measured city was Algiers, Algeria at 56KBps followed by Itapema, Brazil at 61KBps and Santa Cruz, Bolivia at 62KBps.
Average download speeds varied by ISP. In the United States, Verizon Internet Services provides the fastest service, averaging 1,056KBps due to their widespread FIOS network. In Great Britain, Virgin Media is the fastest choice with average speeds of 612KBps while Dacom Corp. takes the top spot in speedy South Korea with an average of 5,151KBps.
"The disparities we found were striking. While, in general, developed economies outpaced the developing world in average download speeds, big names such as the US, UK, France, China and Canada were not even close to being the fastest," said Robert Levitan, CEO of Pando Networks.
Specific city and country-based data and infographics are available on request from pando@triplepointpr.com. An interactive and embeddable heatmap of the data is available at http://chartsbin.com/view/2484.
About Pando Networks Inc. Pando Networks (www.pandonetworks.com) improves the delivery performance of online games. Pando accelerates content delivery, increases download completion rates and provides detailed performance data. Pando technology currently accelerates the delivery of more than 200 million game downloads around the world each year. Pando is funded by Intel Capital, BRM Capital and Wheatley Partners.
Contacts
TriplePoint PR
Ed Zitron, 347-994-8766
pando@triplepointpr.com