9 Countries With Highest Percentage Of Super-Slow Internet Speeds: Akamai

If your biggest pet peeve is pokey Internet, we suggest you stay out of these countries.

In its "The State of the Internet" report, cloud platform provider Akamai featured a list of countries with the highest percentage of super-slow Internet connections. To create this list, Akamai analyzed global data from its intelligent cloud platform to identify the locations where the greatest percentage of "narrowband" connections (data speeds slower than 256 kbps) were adopted during the last three months of 2011.

The report found that, between the end of 2011 and the end of 2010, the global percentage of new narrowband connections declined; but it also stated that the country with the greatest percentage of ultra-slow data speeds saw a 250-percent increase in new narrowband connections during October and December of 2011. And while the United States doesn't show up on Akamai's list of the top 9 countries with the most low-speed Internet connections, it does come in at number 27, with 1.6 percent of its wireless connections operating below 256 kbps.

To get a sense of just how slowly the Internet runs in some of the countries (see slideshow below), consider Google's findings last month, when it measured Web page load speeds on both desktop computers and mobile devices in 50 different countries. According to Bloomberg, Google found that on desktops in the U.S., Web pages took an average of 5.7 seconds to load, while on mobile devices, pages took an average of 9.2 seconds to load. In contrast, in the country that ranked number eight on Akamai's list, Web pages took an average of 20.3 seconds to load on desktops and 12.9 seconds on mobile devices.

Flip through the slideshow to check out the 9 countries where the most low-speed Internet connections are found. Were you surprised by any of the countries that made this list? Let us know in the comments! But before you do, make sure to check out the top nine countries with the fastest Internet speeds, as well as the slowest 'net speeds in the U.S., as ranked by Akamai

Loading Slideshow

• #9: Kazakhstan

  Percent below 256 kbps: 16 percent Change from last quarter: 4.2 percent decrease

• #8: Indonesia

  Percent below 256 kbps: 19 percent Change from last quarter: 13 percent decrease

• #7: Syria

  Percent below 256 kbps: 19 percent Change from last quarter: 10 percent increase

• #6: Bolivia

  Percent below 256 kbps: 25 percent Change from last quarter: 22 percent decrease

• #5: India

  Percent below 256 kbps: 27 percent Change from last quarter: 5.6 percent decrease

• #4: Iran

  Percent below 256 kbps: 30 percent Change from last quarter: 6.0 percent decrease

• #3: Nigeria

  Percent below 256 kbps: 31 percent Change from last quarter: 16 percent decrease

• #2: Nepal

  Percent below 256 kbps: 32 percent Change from last quarter: 4.0 percent decrease

• #1: Libya

  Percent below 256 kbps: 52 percent Change from last quarter: 5.7 percent decrease

• How to Check Your Internet Speed

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Comments

[Shanyz Abdulla]

07:31 AM on 03/29/2013

Aw c'mon huffpost, Maldives has the most slowest and the most expensive ISP's in the world!!

[johnnytwotoes]

07:01 PM on 09/26/2012

Hmm. Libya has the slowest, poorest Internet service of all countries in the middle east and only between 5 & 6 percent have the crappy service. So how did all of the Islamist rioters see this film that supposedly sent all Muslims into a rage? Did they go over to the one person that has service in their town and watch the video after it downloaded (after about a week of waiting for it to finish downloading)? What a crock of garbage. The rioting had nothing to do with some dumb film because most of them never saw it as 95% don't even have internet service. More Lies from politicians.

[TisKishnsing]

06:57 AM on 05/09/2012

what a list. this is totally laughable. :D

[spytheweb]

03:35 AM on 05/09/2012

Where's America? When i download it's at about 40kbps, 40kbps, it's a shame.

[kc soviet]

06:09 PM on 05/08/2012

Kazakhstan... superior potassium, slow interwebs.

[hagagaga]

12:06 PM on 05/10/2012

I am documentarian from Kazakhstan. Where are your prostitutes?

[WayneAcree55]

05:13 PM on 05/08/2012

AOL as of 2009 still has 3.5 million dial-up subscribers. Some studies show that 80 million adults and 13 million children either still use dial-up or don’t use the Internet at all at home. that's roughly 1/3 of americans. I guess speed isn't an issue if you don't use it.

[Lonnie DeVorak]

07:54 PM on 05/08/2012

Playing Farmville and Mafia Wars on dial-up got to be terrible.

[Nada Saif]

05:09 PM on 05/08/2012

I wonder why Yemen is not included in the list ,it has a very slow connection - I test it using speedtest.net ,got 0.20mbps for downloads and 0.05mbps for uploads!!

[tobo]

05:57 PM on 05/08/2012

If I lived in Yemen, there would be bigger issues that would raise my concern than my internet connection. Like the lack of fresh water which is partly caused by the use of khat farmers (and the alarmingly high number of khat addicts).

[Nada Saif]

01:52 AM on 05/09/2012

Yes ,I agree,Yemen has numerous of critical issues - but how we can success to solve any issue if we lack access to knowledge around the world ,I believe in the power of technology and education ..We in Yemen care of all issues in paralleled , and I'm more likely to care about technology!!

Thanks.

[Burton Wynne Jr]

04:47 PM on 05/08/2012

I'm kind of surprised that India is on the list. I wonder if they need to refine the list for slowest... For example the percentage of slow speed connections divided by the number of high speed connections!

[AraG]

04:45 PM on 05/08/2012

Now let's have a list of the top 10 countries with fast internet access. I bet the US won't even be there...

[cashaww]

09:23 PM on 05/08/2012

Nope, it is not. For the country who help, said with a bit of caution, pioneer the internet, the US falls in the middle of the pact.

[Steve Rapaport]

04:30 PM on 05/08/2012

I'm from Canada. I've lived in the U.S., Italy, Sweden, England, and Scotland. The slowest by far of all of these was and remains Canada. I've visited Slovakia, Israel, Japan and Malta. Canada is still the slowest, and I think the most expensive too. For a first-world country it's really got a third-world internet. "broadband" in Canada, last I checked, still meant ADSL at 256K, over some crappy PPPoE connection that requires a new dial-up every time you go idle. The charge for this disservice remains as high as that in Italy or Sweden where large cities all have 50Mb fibre or better.

[lesley tivendale]

05:14 PM on 05/08/2012

I completly agree. I am Canadian too, and I was waiting for Canada to show up. I dont know any details like ADSL and PPPoE, but what i do know is that I live in the middle of a large city and my internet service SUCKS!!! along with my provider.....damn you rogers!!

[Burak Gldiker]

03:54 PM on 05/08/2012

where'd Turkey go? must be written!

[aburbal]

04:22 PM on 05/08/2012

Is internet slow in Turkey? Haha! :)

[Burak Gldiker]

04:41 PM on 05/08/2012

if you compare the speed and the price to another countries its yeah slow as hell. When i was in Poland last year i was paying 20 dollars for 20MBit unlimited package. Here 20Mbit costs more than 40 dollars and you will never reach the speed which is promised. The max. speed i have reached is 7MBit

[ramonbatt]

02:08 PM on 05/08/2012

My 3G iphone and dial up are almost the same speed. I miss my cable)):

[US Patent 7089319]

11:30 AM on 05/08/2012

Kazakhstan greatest country in the world.
All other countries are run by little girls.
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium.
Other countries have inferior potassium.

[Neil J Daniels]

11:49 AM on 05/08/2012

You took the words right out of my mouth XD

[mjeffn]

12:56 PM on 05/08/2012

"must have been while you were kissing me" LOL

[theveggiedude]

01:46 PM on 05/08/2012

Are you excluding the countries that export banana's?

[ramonbatt]

02:11 PM on 05/08/2012

You mean USA?