Turbo browsing kicks into overdrive

More than 5.2 million users turbo charged their browsing in August, with more than one in 10 of Opera’s 50 million monthly desktop users activating Opera Turbo to unclog a slow Internet connection.

In the past year, Opera Turbo users have browsed 25.8 billion compressed pages in total, letting Opera Turbo do the heavy-lifting by serving more than 1697 terabytes of compressed data. In that time, Opera Turbo’s total compression has spared users data equal to the printed collection of the U.S. Library of Congress 191 times over, or 319 times the entire contents of Wikipedia.

Released in September last year as part of Opera 10 for PC/Mac/Linux, Opera Turbo is a unique compression technology that rescues users from the frustration of slow connections. If users are stuck on a dial-up connection, rely on 3G cards in their netbooks or get crowded out in a busy Wi-Fi area, activating Opera Turbo gives a browsing boost by reducing the size of webpages by up to 80 percent. This means faster surfing and lower browsing costs.

The top 20 countries taking advantage of faster surfing with Opera Turbo are (in order): Russian Federation, Ukraine, India, Germany, Indonesia, Poland, China, United States, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Italy, United Kingdom, Turkey, France, Czech Republic, Iran, Slovakia, Romania and Spain.

These country results demonstrate that Opera Turbo works for anyone bound by a slow connection and that users across the globe are united by the goal to save time and money when browsing.

‚Prior to the launch of Opera Turbo, we expected that this technology would be adopted first and foremost by those with dial-up connections and limited broadband,‚ said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. ‚We are delighted to see Opera Turbo helping users to power-up in a wide variety of countries for a wide variety of needs. It is rewarding to celebrate the anniversary of Opera Turbo with such significant speed gains and cost savings for users across the globe.‚

Countries in focus

We spoke to our community to find out how people from the top 20 user countries are taking advantage of Opera Turbo.

Topping the list of Opera Turbo devotees is Russia. Russia has approximately 26 percent broadband penetration (according to AC&M, H1-2010), with territories outside Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities experiencing slower connection speeds. Smaller cities and business travelers access the Web through 3G USB modems, for GPRS/EDGE/3G connection to the Internet via mobile networks. Most Internet users have pre-paid traffic limits and must pay by megabyte beyond this limit: with Opera Turbo, both city and regional users get more data per megabyte and save money.

2G networks are predominant in India, and 3G has only recently become available in certain regions. As in Russia, India has solid broadband speeds in larger cities and workplaces, but speed suffers when internet users rely on datacards for traveling to other areas. ‚I use Opera Turbo due to the unreliable broadband connections in India,‚ said user Abinash Bishoyi. ‚I use it as my proxy service, to compress unnecessary web media and save a lot of bandwidth.‚

What Opera fans say

Stephan, software developer, Germany: ‚I use Opera Turbo on my netbook. When no Wi-Fi network is around I use the 3G modem and Opera Turbo allows me to save money and make the best of the slow connection.‚

‚airiRin’, My Opera community member, Indonesia: ‚I use Opera Turbo because my connection speed will go down from 1 mbps to 128 kbps after 3GB of usage. Opera Turbo is really essential when I pass the limit, and makes me feel like I have a 512 kbps connection speed when browsing.‚

Ryan, student, United States: ‚The Wi-Fi at my college is a joke, but Opera Turbo bumps the dial-up connection speed to DSL levels and it makes it usable. It’s very handy!‚

Daniel, student, United Kingdom: ‚When I get stuck on a slow connection, with Opera Turbo I can look smug while everyone else grinds to a halt.‚

Ma√∞ruf, logistics manager, Turkey: ‚While on holiday last week with no Internet connection, I needed to connect to my company to check email and other work. I used my phone as a modem to connect. With a quota of just 150 megabytes, I enabled Opera Turbo‚Ķ I surfed three times faster, and at the end of the holiday still had 60 megabytes to spare.‚

The Opera Turbo report provides information on the leading global trends generated by Opera Turbo users. The report for August was released today, available from www.opera.com/otr/ (English only). In addition to country snapshots, the report highlights issues affecting turbo browsing around the world.

What is Opera Turbo?

Opera Turbo is a unique compression technology available in both Opera 10 and Opera Mobile. Opera Turbo reduces the size of webpages by up to 80 percent, dramatically improving browsing speeds over slow networks and saving money on ‚pay as you go‚ connections. To activate Opera Turbo, simply click the Opera Turbo speedometer icon in the lower, left-hand corner of the Opera 10 browser. Then sit back and surf the Web at turbo speeds.

Learn more about Opera Turbo: www.opera.com/browser/turbo/