How Fast Will Asia Reach First World Levels of Broadband Access?

How long will it take for Asia to Reach "First World" levels of broadband access adoption and speed? The answer, of course, depends on where we look. Some would say a few nations in Asia already have surpassed most nations in North America and Europe.

But that's the point: Asia is too varied a place to describe in "average" terms, as it arguably includes both the nations with the fastest access as well as some nations with very low access speeds or adoption. 

 Hong Kong has average access speeds of 54.1 Mbps, while South Korea has average speeds of 48.8 Mbps. 

Malaysia, with an average peak connection speed at 18.2 Mbps, represents the average country. 

But Asia is a continent of wide dynamic range, where it comes to access speed. Africa, Europe, South America, and the Pacific (which includes Australia and New Zealand) all have a rather even distribution; consequently they have a median and an average that are both located near the middle. 

 In Asia, median (half of country speeds are higher, half are lower) and mean (arithmetical average) are not closely correlated. 

That tends to happen when a sample includes widely-disparate numerical values. 

 "Average" data consumption is that sort of distribution, as it is typical for a small number of users to consume very large amounts of data, while most users consumer relatively little.

So it is difficult to predict when "Asia" will reach "First World" levels of adoption or speed. Some nations in Asia already have surpassed most developed nations. Some are comparable, and some lag. 

But many predict huge adoption of Internet services in Asia over the next decade, as Asian Internet adoption rates already are the highest in the world.