​San Francisco, March 9 (IANS) Global average internet connection speed has increased 12 per cent to 7.0 Mbps in the fourth quarter of 2016 -- a 26 per cent increase year-over-year, a new report said on Thursday.

According to the "2016 State of the Internet Report" by global leader in content delivery network (CDN) services Akamai Technologies, South Korea again had the highest average connection speed globally at 26.1 Mbps in the fourth quarter.

"Internet connection speeds continued to show positive long-term trends around the world, with particularly strong year-over-year increases across all broadband adoption metrics," said David Belson, editor of the report.

"When Akamai first published the report in 2008, we defined ‘high broadband' as 5 Mbps and above, which nine years ago had an adoption rate of 16 per cent globally. We're now seeing a 15 Mbps adoption rate of 25 per cent worldwide," Belson added.

The report provided insight into key global statistics such as connection speeds, broadband adoption metrics and notable Internet disruptions, among others.

At 26.7 Mbps, the district of Columbia led the United States in average connection speed.

Global 4, 10, 15 and 25 Mbps broadband adoption rates increased 15 per cent, 31 per cent, 37 per cent and 45 per cent year over year, respectively.