14 DAY TRIAL // Broadband speeds were on the rise globally in the fourth quarter of 2012, both average and peak speeds, as is to be expected.
That said, the growth wasn't universal, in fact the country with the fastest internet in the world actually had slower connections at the end of 2012 than it did at the end of 2011.
South Korea had an average connection speed, as measured by Akamai, of 14 Mbps.
That's enough to put it well ahead of the runner up, Japan with 10.8 Mbps, the only other country with over 10 Mbps, but it's still a 4.8 percent drop from the 14.7 Mbps it saw in the third quarter.
It gets worse, South Korea's average connection speed was at the end of Q4 2012 13 percent slower than it was a year before. In fact, the fastest speeds recorded were in Q3 2011, when South Korea had 16.7 Mbps.
But, again, don't feel too bad for South Korea, it's still got the fastest internet in the world, as far as average speeds are concerned.
When it comes to average peak speeds, South Korea is second, after Hong Kong. At least its peak speeds are increasing, 1 percent from the previous quarter and 7.8 percent from the year before.
Elsewhere, Latvia and Switzerland are trading places, with Latvia coming out on top in the last quarter. They come in fourth and fifth place in the top 10, the first European countries in the top as well.
But after the first three, it's all European countries with the sole exception of the US at number eight.
Apart from South Korea, everyone in the top 10 is gaining speed, even if the growth is very small, 0.1 percent in the Netherlands, for example.