Web users in Shanghai enjoy the fastest connection speeds in China, according to the latest quarterly survey by ChinaCache International Holdings Ltd, a Nasdaq-listed Internet service provider.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, the average connection speed in China reached about 2.59 Mb/s, compared with 2.31 Mb/s in the third quarter, results of the Fourth Quarter 2012 China Internet Connection Speed Rankings showed.

Shanghai topped the list with an average connection speed of 4 Mb/s, the only region above 4 Mb/s nationwide. Fujian and Zhejiang provinces came in a distant second and third with average speeds of 3.17 Mb/s and 3.07 Mb/s, respectively.

China's western regions fell behind the national average with a connection speed of 2.34 Mb/s, while the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region was the last on the list with 1.74Mb/s.

Comparing China's three major carriers, China Unicom had the slowest average connection speed of 2.3 Mb/s, slightly behind China Mobile's 2.36 Mb/s and China Telecom's 2.63 Mb/s.

Web users of China Mobile and China Telecom in South China generally enjoyed faster connection speeds than those in the North. Conversely, China Unicom's customers in North China typically had a better experience than those in the South.

The rankings are based on data collected from ChinaCache Index, the first platform in China that allows Web users to measure their Internet speeds on a real-time basis.

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