With an average Internet speed of 2.7 Mbps, Vietnam’s Internet speed was ranked 99th in the world in the final quarter of last year, according to a report of U.S. cloud computing services provider Akamai Technologies.

The report on State of the Internet in quarter four of 2014 showed Vietnam’s average Internet connection speed in the fourth quarter of 2014 improved slightly from the previous quarter (2.5 Mbps).

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam was ranked after Singapore, Thailand (45th) and Malaysia (75th) but above the Philippines (101st) and Indonesia (122nd).

The report showed South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan took the top three spots in the global ranking of Internet connection speed.

Singapore stood at the first place in the Asia-Pacific region but the 12th on the global ranking. Meanwhile, Taiwan and China were ranked 22nd and 82nd globally.

Commenting on the report, chairman of the Vietnam Internet Association Vu Hoang Lien said the number of new Internet subscribers in Vietnam uses low-speed packages and might be the reason for the low Internet connection speed.  

There were around 530,000 new broadband Internet subscribers (high speed) last year but the number of new 3G subscribers (low speed) was more than nine million. The connection speed of 3G Internet is much slower than that of the broadband Internet service.  

The report of Akamai is fairly objective but does not reflect the actual state of Internet in Vietnam, Lien said.

According to Lien, Internet services in Vietnam are growing well but affected by the country’s economic conditions compared to other parts of the region. With low average income per capita and limited investments, Internet growth in Vietnam cannot be compared with that of developed countries.

But the good news for Internet in Vietnam is that the number of Internet users is still growing by around 30% annually compared to Asia-Pacific’s average growth of about 20%.

Lien called for Vietnamese Internet service providers to attend to the report of Akamai as well as other statistics to review Internet quality in Vietnam.

“Companies need to care more about the quality of Internet services they provide. I believe Vietnam’s Internet quality will be improved in the coming time,” Lien said.  

According to Nguyen Hong Thang, deputy director of the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC), the report partly reflects the state of Vietnam’s Internet. Akamai is a big enterprise and Vietnamese management agencies and Internet suppliers should consult statistics it has released.