Akamai Releases Fourth Quarterly "State of the Internet" Report

* Reuters is not responsible for the content in this press release.

Mon Mar 30, 2009 7:00am EDT

* Close to 20% of the world`s Internet users are connecting at speeds greater
than 5 Mbps
* U.S. ranks highest in percentage of observed attack traffic
* East Coast of U.S. continues to have highest penetration of high broadband
connections
* South Korea again ranks as country with highest percentage of connections at
high broadband speeds, with average connection speed of 15 Mbps - 10x the global
average
* Akamai announces it`s 5th data visualization tool, tracking average connection
speeds on a global basis

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(Business Wire)--
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering rich media,
dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, today announced the
release of the fourth edition of its quarterly State of the Internet report
available for download at www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet. Leveraging
published reports and information gathered from its network, Akamai's quarterly
report provides insight into key Internet statistics such as origin of attack
traffic, network outages and broadband connectivity levels across the globe. 

As the Company's fourth published edition, the report also now provides a
full-year view, as well as a quarterly view, into trends. Those trends include: 

Attack Traffic

During the fourth quarter of 2008, Akamai observed attack traffic originating
from 193 unique countries around the world, up nearly 8% from the third quarter
count of 179 countries. In the fourth quarter, the United States moved into
first place for the first time in 2008, after placing second to either China or
Japan throughout the year. Throughout 2008, the United States, China, Taiwan,
South Korea, and Japan were consistently among the top 10 countries that
generated the highest percentages of attack traffic. 

Broadband Connectivity

Through its globally-deployed server network, and by virtue of the billions of
requests for Web content that it services on a daily basis, Akamai has a unique
level of visibility into the connection speeds of those systems issuing the
requests, and as such, of broadband adoption around the globe. In the fourth
quarter of 2008, the State of the Internet report began tracking average
connection speeds for countries around the world. Globally, the average
connection speed was approximately 1.5 Mbps. South Korea had the fastest average
connection speed, at 15 Mbps, and the U.S. ranked 17th globally, with an average
connection speed of 3.9 Mbps, up approximately 8% from the average connection
speed for the first quarter of 2008. 

Current highlights and historical trends for average connection speeds on a
global basis can be found in Akamai`s new data visualization tool, available at
http://www.akamai.com/dv5. This "Global Broadband Adoption" tool has been added
to Akamai`s suite of data visualization tools, available at
http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/visualizing_akamai.html, which include
views into global attack traffic, network latency and packet loss, and traffic
on the Akamai network, as well as Akamai`s popular Net Usage Indices for Retail,
News and Music. 

In the fourth quarter of 2008, only six countries connected to Akamai`s network
at average speeds in excess of 5 Mbps, and for the year, many countries showed
significant increases in their levels of high broadband (>5 Mbps) adoption.
Looking back over all of 2008, the average connection speeds of most users
across the U.S. saw nominal to significant increases in their average broadband
speed, with Nebraska and Kentucky seeing a 33% improvement from the first
quarter to the fourth quarter. 

Fastest International Countries

At the end of 2008, approximately 19% of Internet connections around the world
were at speeds greater than 5 Mbps, representing a 21% increase over the average
global connection speed at the end of 2007. In line with their average
connection speed of 15 Mbps, and their appearance at the top of the list for the
prior three quarters, South Korea once again ranked as the country with the
highest percentage of connections at high broadband (>5 Mbps) speeds. Looking at
the levels of high broadband penetration in the fourth quarter, South Korea,
Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway had more high broadband IP`s per
capita than in the prior quarter. This is consistent with what would be expected
from the initiatives to bring higher-speed connectivity, including
Fiber-to-the-Home efforts, to consumers in these countries. 

Fastest U.S. States

The U.S. saw a minor decline in the percentage of connections to Akamai at
speeds above 5 Mbps, though the level of high broadband adoption was up 27% for
the year. It`s not clear what caused the decline in the fourth quarter, although
published reports indicate that many consumers, in order to save money, would
scale down their broadband service (to a lower speed tier), rather than
cancelling it outright. Maintaining the trend from the prior three quarters of
2008, the East Coast of the U.S. was once again well represented in the top 10
list of U.S. states with the greatest levels of high broadband (>5 Mbps)
connectivity, taking seven of the top 10 slots. 

Akamai's unique level of visibility into the connection speeds of systems
issuing requests to the Akamai network has created a one-of-a-kind view into
broadband adoption around the globe. Leveraging that data, Akamai's quarterly
State of the Internet report identifies both the countries and U.S. states with
the fastest and slowest average connection speeds exhibited by IP addresses
originating from those respective geographies. To learn more, and to access the
archive of past reports, please visit www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet. 

The Akamai Difference

Akamai® provides market-leading managed services for powering rich media,
dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the
content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai's services have been adopted by
the world's most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to
centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai's global network of tens of thousands of
distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for
businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more
viable place to inform, entertain, interact, and collaborate. To experience The
Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com. 





Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Jennifer Donovan, 650-627-5395
Media Relations
jdonovan@akamai.com
or
Natalie Temple, 617-444-3635
Investor Relations
ntemple@akamai.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009

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