Seattle, WA — May 25, 2010 — Ookla™ (www.ookla.com), the global leader in web- based network diagnostic applications, today announced the release of the Net IndexTM, a site designed to foster public research, analysis and discussion of broadband penetration and performance. Ookla conducts more than one million speed and quality tests daily, primarily through its Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net sites, and has completed more than 1.5 billion tests to date. The popularity of these sites (Speedtest.net is ranked in the top 1000 global sites based on traffic) makes the Net Index data offering the richest and most comprehensive information ever compiled and released regarding broadband statistics.
Updated daily and freely open to consumers, academic researchers, industry and government representatives, the Net Index features current and historical global metrics. It details and ranks regions, countries and cities worldwide, and provides specific metrics for the United States.
As of today the Global Download Index is 7.68Mbps, and the top countries by download speed are South Korea (36.5Mbps), Latvia (23.3Mbps), Republic of Moldova (21.5Mbps), Japan (20.3Mbps) and Sweden (19.8Mbps). In the U.S., the top performing states are Delaware (15.6Mbps), Rhode Island (15.2Mbps), Massachusetts (15Mbps), New Jersey (14.1Mbps) and Virginia (13.6Mbps); the state with the lowest performance, according to Net Index, is Alaska at 2.8Mbps average download speed.
"The release of this data is particularly timely in the U.S.," noted Tim Bajarin, principal strategist with industry research firm Creative Strategies, Inc. "The country is now taking a hard look at its technology infrastructure through initiatives such as the National Broadband Plan and making decisions designed to foster innovation, drive Internet adoption and promote technology services. This data will be invaluable for all stakeholders, from consumers to legislators."
According to Mike Apgar, co-founder and managing partner of Ookla, "What makes the Net Index so powerful is that it's more than just raw data or a generic view of the Internet as a whole; the Net Index is designed to finally make broadband performance statistics understandable, accessible and actionable. By focusing our first Indexes on household broadband, we are able to deliver the most accurate and meaningful data needed to help drive decisions within government, carriers and ISPs. Ookla is in a unique position to provide this valuable information, and we're extremely pleased to be making our Net Index site available to the public."
The initial Net Index provides averages and details around consumer broadband upload and download speeds, as well as an overall measurement of connection quality based on key criteria including ping, jitter and packet loss. Raw data of test results dating as far back as September 2007 are available upon request and free of charge for academic use. Future data sets will be provided quarterly and expanded to provide for additional metrics and resulting insight, such as business connectivity and the imminent "Value Index", designed to rationalize and compare the "cost per megabit" of speed for businesses and consumers worldwide. All information is meticulously scrubbed to protect privacy.
Consumers utilize Ookla test engines through its websites and those of its clients, including the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) National Broadband Plan at http://www.broadband.gov, or at Cisco, Comcast, Nokia, Reuters, Speakeasy, Time Warner Cable and Vonage, to name a few. Speedtest.net is also offered as a native application on Apple®'s iPhone™ and the Android™ platform.
Ookla is the global leader in broadband speed testing and web-based network diagnostic applications. The company's test engines and methodologies set the broadband industry's standards for popularity, ease of use and the subsequent development of relevant statistical data. Through application development and licensing, Ookla services almost every Internet Service Provider in the world, and its solutions have been translated into 26 languages for use by thousands of small businesses and Fortune 500 companies such as Cisco, Comcast, Nokia, Reuters, Speakeasy, Time Warner Cable and Vonage. Over two million tests a day are completed with Ookla's numerous free diagnostic tools including Speedtest.net, the leader in measuring broadband connection speed. Founded by Internet and telecommunications veterans in 2006, Ookla has offices in Seattle, WA and Kalispell, MT. For more information, please visit http://www.ookla.com or follow the company on Twitter @TeamOokla.
Ookla Tops Two Million Broadband Speed and Quality Tests Daily