Australian internet slowly getting faster

Australian internet is speeding up, and in perfect conditions mobile broadband is unrivalled.

But the country still lags 40 others in overall global speed rankings, internet giant Akamai says.

Australians averaged 7.1 megabits-per-second (Mbps) between April and June, according to the company's latest State of the Internet report.

That's 18 per cent faster than the three months prior and 46 per cent faster than the same period last year.

At Australia's average speed, a 1GB movie would download in about 19 minutes.

In first-placed South Korea, where the average speed is 24.6 Mbps, it would download in about five minutes.

Australia's average peak connection speed was 36.8 Mbps, Akamai found - a yearly increase of 27 per cent, ranking the country 40th globally.

First-placed Hong Kong averaged a 73.9 Mbps peak.

Australia performed better on mobile speeds, with by far the fastest average peak connection in the world at 108 Mpbs. Japan, the next fastest, scored 47.5 Mpbs.

Australia's strong performance reflects the billions of dollars local telcos have poured into high-speed 4G network infrastructure.

Yet real-world average speeds were far lower at 4.9 Mbps, placing Australia 16th.

Globally, average speeds passed the "broadband" threshold of four Mbps for the first time on record, reaching 4.6 Mbps.

The report draws on data compiled by Akamai's "intelligent platform", which handles up to 30 per cent of the world's internet traffic via more than 100,000 servers.

HOW AUSTRALIA COMPARES

* Average connection: 41st (7.1 Mbps)

* Average peak: 40th (36.8 Mbps)

* Average mobile: 16th (4.9 Mbps)

* Average peak mobile: 1st (108 Mbps)