The iPhone isn’t slowing the internet

A lot of people have trouble with statistics.

I learned that first hand teaching statistics at a university level.

But it also became evident with the way a bunch of reports have misinterpretted reports from Akamai’s State of the Internet for 4Q09 [pdf, 2.28MB]. A number of people are reporting that the internet is slowing down because of the iPhone, based on observations by Akamai about a decline in average internet access speed in Korea.

we believe that [the iPhone] launch was likely responsible for the significant drop in South Korea’s average observed connection speed in the fourth quarter.

As an example, Bill St. Arnaud says that indicates a “desperate need for 5G networks.”

There are several reports of how Internet traffic is being slowed down because of the huge growth in mobile data traffic from devices like the iPhone. Mobile data now exceeds mobile voice in terms of traffic volume.

I think that these reports are misunderstanding the impact of the iPhone and mobile devices on Korean and other networks. It is wrong to interpret these results as internet traffic being slowed down because of a growth in mobile data.

This isn’t an issue of capacity and there isn’t a slowing down of conventional internet access. Instead, it appears to be a statistical anomaly caused by a surge in internet access from slower speed devices. The average is being pulled down by the growth in internet demand from slower speed forms of access – but that does not mean that the internet is being slowed down. Nor does it mean that people are getting anything less than fully satisfactory service quality from these slower speed mobile devices and networks.

If anything, the massive growth in mobile data is an indicator of overwhelming user satisfaction. That is why people are continuing to buy smart phones and using their devices more and more.