Holland has fastest internet connections in Europe

Research by internet company Akamai reveals that the Netherlands leads Europe in internet speed, with a national average of download speed of 7.5 Mbps. Only South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan offer a higher average speed. Neighbouring Belgium, with an average download speed of 6.1 Mbps, comes ninth in the rankings. 56 percent of Dutch Internet users and 52 percent in Belgium have an internet connection of 5 Mbps or higher.

A year ago the Netherlands was still in seventh place, with an average download speed of 6 Mbps, while Belgium was not in the top ten. According to Akamai, there are 8.2 million unique IP addresses in the Netherlands, compared to 3.9 million in Belgium. Akamai Technologies is the world's leading provider of cloud optimization services. Akamai bases its findings on data gathered from the Akamai Internet platform, which carries between 15 to 30 percent of the world's Web traffic at any one time.

Not only does Holland have the fastest internet connections in Europe, it also has the highest broadband connectivity in Europe and ranks among the highest in the world. Almost every household in the Netherlands can be reached by a cable or DSL connection and fibre technologies are being deployed at a rapid rate. The country has a cultural preference for technically advanced forms of communication services, according to the Connectivity Scorecard 2010, an annual study carried out by Nokia Siemens Networks.

Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide and Dutchnews.nl, July 2011