• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 8, 2017

Perhaps more than any factor, connection speeds determine mobile consumers’ usage patterns. 

That’s why publishers, platforms and marketers might be disheartened by Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report, which found that the United States ranks 28th in the world in terms of mobile Web speeds. 

For its findings, Akamai surveyed 62 countries and considered usage from smartphones, tablets, computers and other devices that connect to the Web through mobile network providers.

In the developed world, carriers are beginning to roll out so-called 5g services. Stateside, Verizon recently announced it would launch 5g services in 11 domestic markets in the first half of 2017, while AT&T announced plans to launch 5g services in late 2018.

Worldwide, mobile data traffic is growing, driven both by increased smartphone subscriptions and a continued increase in average data volume per subscription, which is fueled primarily by increased viewing of video content, according to Akamai.

In the first quarter of 2017, data traffic grew nearly 12% quarter-over-quarter and nearly 70% year-over-year.

Over the past five years, cumulative voice traffic growth was 28%, while cumulative data traffic growth was more than 1,200%, per Akamai’s findings.

As for mobile advertising, Asia-Pacific countries continue to lead the way, according to findings released earlier this week by real-time ad platform Smaato. In China in particular, Smaato said it saw first-quarter ad spending nearly double year-over-year.

The firm attributed much of the growth to the Chinese/Lunar New Year, which fell on January 28, and drove 18% higher ad revenue (on average) than neighboring countries that did not observe.