Sylwia Kechiche | November 23, 2023

Empowering Europe's Digital Ascent: Insights from Ookla's Gigabit Revolution Webinar

Ookla® has recently hosted a webinar on “Accelerating Europe’s Gigabit Revolution: The importance of high-speed internet in the digital era.” We gathered representatives from three European fiber providers, vertically integrated UK Internet Service Provider (ISP) Hyperoptic, Polish open-access fiber network provider, Fiberhost, and Spanish wholesale provider Onvia, to discuss their strategies and challenges related to fiber roll out and adoption. Industry experts from the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ecta) and two research houses, Assembly Research and Omdia, also joined us.

European Commission’s Digital Decade 2030 Strategy

The European Commission’s Digital Decade 2030 strategy, also known as the Digital Compass, is an ambitious roadmap to speed up the digital transformation of Member States by 2030. One of its primary objectives is to enhance digital connectivity, with specific targets such as 100 Mbps services by 2025 and gigabit coverage for all EU households by 2030. We recently published an article to provide a reality check on the progress towards a Gigabit society. Our data suggests a wide gap between advertised and actual speeds for gigabit services, with speeds approaching 100 Mbps commonly seen by users. Despite this gap, our webinar participants were optimistic about achieving the Gigabit Society goal, with 71% supporting that view.

Chart of Percentage of Households Subscribing to Fixed Broadband of at Least 1 Gbps

The EU goal predominantly focuses on the availability aspect. However, it is important to note that having fiber networks available does not automatically equate to actual penetration or adoption rates, although it is a necessary prerequisite. Having physical accessibility to network services is, of course, a vital first step before actual usage, which is influenced by multiple factors such as affordability, awareness, and the perceived need for the service.

The European fiber network landscape

Stephen Wilson, Senior Principal Analyst from Omdia, provided an analyst’s perspective on how the fiber networks’ competitive landscape is evolving for alternative operators and incumbents. He stated that there has been a substantial increase in Fiber-To-The-Premises (FTTP) coverage, and the investment case for fiber has been spurred by the pandemic. Leading countries, including those in Iberia and Eastern Europe, are pushing coverage to 90% of premises or more, driven by a positive business case. While FTTH (Fiber to the Home) subscriber penetration is generally experiencing steady growth, country-level variations exist, with factors like digital literacy, existing broadband penetration, and competition playing crucial roles in the observed trends. Countries such as Spain and Romania have achieved significant FTTH penetration rates, while others like France have outperformed predictions, emphasizing the diverse dynamics influencing fiber adoption across Europe.

Importance of supportive regulatory framework

James Robinson, Senior Analyst from Assembly Research, highlighted three measures the European Commission is taking as it seeks to deliver against the Digital Decade’s connectivity targets: the draft Gigabit Recommendation, the proposed Gigabit Infrastructure Act, and a plan for a Digital Networks Act. Although broad industry support exists for the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA), the draft Gigabit Recommendation has proven to be the most controversial. Both measures are still nevertheless expected to be finalized by the end of the year. The Digital Networks Act (DNA) will take longer to materialize, with a white paper not due until H1 2024. Despite its catchy title, the ‘DNA’ is unlikely to represent the urgent concrete action many operators had hoped to see from the Commission following the launch of the exploratory consultation back in February of this year.

Luc Hindryckx, Director General at ecta, expressed doubt about an investment gap that could endanger the 2030 targets. He suggested that some proposed legislation had been developed to support only a few operators rather than to promote competition. Hindryckx stressed the importance of bringing the Gigabit Infrastructure Act to “a good end” and ensuring the reduction of the timing for obtaining permits to deploy networks. He also pointed out that the GIA is complementary to the European Electronic Communication Code (ECCC), and its key elements include asymmetrical regulation and the Significant Market Power (SMP) regime. Overall, ecta emphasizes the importance of regulatory measures that foster competition, encourage investment, and create a level playing field, ultimately contributing to the successful deployment of gigabit connectivity and the Digital Decade 2030 objectives.

Succeeding in Rural Areas

Marta Wojciechowska, Chief Executive Officer at Fiberhost, has reported that the company has already met its goal of extending its fiber-optic network to over 1.3 million households by the end of the year. The company primarily focuses on underserved areas, where deployment costs tend to be higher and less predictable. While there are uncertainties regarding demand and fiber service uptake, there are unique benefits, including the low risk of overbuilding. However, the investment process varies significantly between urban and rural areas. In cities, one kilometer of infrastructure can connect one hundred to two hundred households, depending on the city’s size. In rural areas, connectivity extends to just seventeen households per kilometer.

Furthermore, up to 19 formal approvals may be required for infrastructure deployment, which extends the time to connect premises in rural areas to an impractical 24 months. The cost of connecting one household in these secluded “white spots” is over five hundred percent higher than in cities. Overcoming these challenges requires expertise, experience, and a collaborative approach, emphasizing the importance of partnerships with multiple stakeholders. These include local governments and subcontractors to achieve common goals in fiber network expansion.

Strategies for Expansion

Icíar Martínez, Markets and Product Director at Onivia, acknowledged they face similar challenges to Fiberhost but noted that their strategies for expanding the FTTH footprint might differ. Spain boasts close to 90% fiber optic coverage, thanks to private initiatives and government support. Their selective deployment focuses on rural and ultra-rural areas, addressing high customer interest. However, the cherry-picking strategy becomes expensive, impacting profitability, especially in densely competitive areas. Onivia aims to maximize capital returns by identifying key players, adopting XGPON technology for speeds up to 10 Gbps, and strategically balancing deployments in large cities and rural regions to optimize network utilization based on market demands.

On the other hand, Howard Jones, Head of Communications at Hyperoptic, noted that the Hyperoptic approach is distinct, focusing on urban areas with densely populated regions. The key lies in a granular business case approach, evaluating each deployment building by building and street by street. Hyperoptic’s philosophy centers on understanding that the network’s value lies in retaining customers, emphasizing a customer-centric business model. With a customer experience-oriented strategy, the ISP addresses challenges in the UK broadband market, historically marked by lower speeds and inadequate competition. By delivering a high-quality network, reliable service, and fair pricing policies, Jones highlighted that the company aims to set new standards in customer experience, achieving a 40% penetration rate within approximately a year of network deployment.

Addressing take-up challenges

Marta shared that Fiberhost’s network would not be deployed in white spot areas without EU funds. Fiberhost is the largest beneficiary of EU-funded grants, but this is just the beginning of the investment process. They need to “earn money, and for that, we need to have a good take-up rate.” She added that they must work hard to encourage people to join the fiber network. Their analysis showed that there is a slowdown in activations after ~40 %. While early adopters (47%) are willing to pay a premium for fiber internet, a substantial portion of potential users remain hesitant, contributing to the overall challenge of achieving a high take-up rate. The remaining 53% of households exhibit characteristics of an older demographic (above fifty-five) with limited internet usage, often for undemanding tasks. Their price sensitivity and lower discretionary income present a formidable barrier to higher adoption rates. As a result, Fiberhost adopts a multifaceted strategy, encompassing high-level engagement with Internet Service Providers (ISPs), targeted sales promotions, and educational initiatives. This strategic flexibility recognizes the absence of a one-size-fits-all solution and emphasizes the need for nuanced approaches tailored to the diverse challenges within each territory.

Iciar echoed this sentiment but also highlighted a need to implement a connectivity plan, not just deploy fiber, but also to digitalize rural areas. Access to a broadband network in rural households is essential, and so is educating people on the benefits of accessing new technologies. Onivia is exploring synergies with other technologies like 5G or satellite to extend broadband connectivity into areas that are difficult to reach. Iciar mentioned that working with local authorities is key to reusing existing infrastructure and avoiding building and disturbing neighborhoods with work.

Demand Aggregation and Competition

Stephen pointed out that the most successful operators are already in the 60-70% take-up rates of premises passed in countries like Norway, which points to demand aggregation being an important factor in getting pre-commitments before you roll out. Howard concluded, “Competition is the key to ensuring that these targets are met because I don’t believe that incumbents alone will do it. They need to be driven, and driven by competition.” He added the introduction of ‘One Touch Switch’ adds another layer of competition into the UK market and presents an opportunity to break the stranglehold of the big retail providers, who still often tend to sell FTTC (Fiber to the Cabinet), by moving a significant number of customers to alternate providers who are more likely to offer FTTP. This initiative is crucial, but what’s more important is the need to retain competition for everyone.

The journey towards Europe’s gigabit revolution is indeed multifaceted and involves various factors such as regulatory landscapes, diverse deployment strategies, financial dependencies, and the imperative of competition. Achieving the Digital Decade 2030 targets demands not just the availability of physical networks but also a concerted effort to address adoption challenges and ensure that the benefits of enhanced connectivity reach all corners of society. A shared commitment to realizing Europe’s digital potential is crucial, and a regulatory framework that fosters competition emerges as a common thread, underlining its pivotal role in driving investment, innovation, and equality. Moving forward, collaboration, adaptability, and a unified approach are essential to achieving Europe’s digital aspirations. From our side, we will continue to report what we see from Ookla® data in terms of users actually experiencing speeds.

See the full webinar recording here.

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

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Sylwia Kechiche

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Sylwia Kechiche | October 23, 2023

A Reality Check on the Progress toward a Gigabit Society

The European Commission has set forth an ambitious goal of achieving a Digital Decade 2030 strategy, also known as the Digital Compass. The aim is to expedite the digital transformation of Member States by 2030. One of the primary objectives of this strategy is to improve digital connectivity, which will be measured through specific targets such as 100 Mbps services by 2025 and gigabit coverage to all EU households by 2030. In this article, we will discuss the progress made so far, the disparities in user experience, and the challenges that need to be addressed to achieve Europe’s connectivity goals.

Key messages

Digital Decade Ambition: The ambitious goals of the EU’s Digital Decade strategy are indeed lofty. Broadband services might promise speeds in excess of 1 Gbps, but the reality is that users rarely experience that level of speed. However, while the gap between advertised speeds and actual speeds for gigabit services is wide, speeds approaching 100 Mbps are far more common.
Median Download Speeds and Infrastructure Development: Several European countries are making substantial progress in offering high-speed broadband. Denmark, Spain, France, and Romania have notably fast median download speeds, primarily due to their fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure investments. The type of broadband technology used in those countries (and others) significantly influences the gap between download and upload speeds, with fiber-based networks showing more balanced speeds.
AltNets Drive Fiber Adoption: Alternative network providers (AltNets) play a vital role in accelerating fiber adoption and addressing challenges mainstream ISPs face. Their role varies across countries and regions.
Take-up rates remain a challenge: With the completion of fiber rollout in several countries, the focus has now shifted towards promoting fiber subscriptions. However, there are challenges that persist, such as consumer reluctance and the need for incentives. A survey conducted in rural France revealed that 42% of the respondents found their current internet sufficient, while 37% said that they would be encouraged to upgrade if offered incentives.

You can also register for our November 8 webinar, where a panel of industry experts will discuss how Europe can accelerate the expansion of gigabit-capable infrastructure. Register now.

On the road to 100 Mbps

The European Commission aims to ensure that all European households, businesses, and public institutions should have access to “high internet speeds” of at least 100 Mbps by year-end 2025. The EU is showing progress in terms of achieving that target. According to Broadband Coverage in Europe 2022, 86.6% of EU households were within 100 Mbps + coverage, meaning they had access to broadband services capable of providing at least 100 Mbps download speeds.

While having networks available does not automatically equate to real penetration or adoption rates, it is an important prerequisite. Physical accessibility to network services is a vital first step before actual usage, which is influenced by factors such as affordability, awareness, and the perceived need for the service.

According to the Digital Economy and Society Index DESI 2023 dashboard for the Digital Decade, 55.08% of EU households had already subscribed to fixed broadband services with internet speeds of at least 100 Mbps. While this rate of subscribers is significant and an indicator of the EC’s ongoing progress, the region is still far from achieving its goal of universal, 100 Mbps coverage by 2025. Some countries like Spain, Sweden, and Romania, where over 80% of households subscribe to broadband exceeding 100 Mbps, have already made significant progress in terms of fiber coverage.

However, in those countries, there is a significant gap between what households subscribe to and what we see from Ookla® data in terms of users actually experiencing speeds above 100 Mbps. Netherlands, France, and Germany are the outliers where we see more users having “high internet speeds” compared to the speeds advertised in their broadband subscription package. This is particularly interesting because Germany still heavily relies on VDSL for high-speed access technologies. Still, there is a significant amount of work to be done before countries can deliver on their strategies to achieve the 100 Mbps target.

The EC’s goal of gigabit connectivity is certainly one of the driving forces behind the rollout of fiber networks in the region. So far, progress is mixed across the region in terms of fiber network rollouts and adoption. As we have discussed, regulatory incentives propel the move to fiber. For example, Romania has one of the highest Fiber to the Home/ Building (FTTP/B) penetration rates across the region — nearly 97.7% of households — which is partially driven by government-backed fixed infrastructure projects such as RoNet, and the special attention given to rural and disadvantaged areas. Portugal, which already scored high on fiber coverage, plans to launch an international public tender by the end of 2023 for a project to cover all underserved areas with fiber-optic networks to boost fiber penetration further.

The reality of gigabit speeds

The European Commission’s Digital Decade 2030 strategy seeks to extend gigabit (1 Gbps) connectivity to every European Union household by 2030. To track the progress of these objectives, the DESI plays a crucial role in tracking EC’s progress. Only 56% of households in the EU have access to the necessary fiber networks for gigabit connectivity, and the take-up rate (proportion of households that subscribe to fiber) is even lower. According to the DESI 2023 dashboard for the Digital Decade, 13.76% of households in the European Union have subscribed to fixed broadband with at least 1 Gbps as of 2022. Nevertheless, there is a significant disparity in these percentages across different EU nations. For instance, only five countries surpassed the EU value – France leading with 39.94%, Hungary second at 29.81%, followed by Romania at 23.35%, Denmark at 18.66%, and Spain at 14.57%.

Looking at this data one might believe that many European households have access to Gigabit internet speeds. However, the reality is different as not all of them genuinely experience such high speeds. In fact, the proportion of Speedtest® users registering median download speeds of at least 1 Gbps in many countries is quite low. For example, France only had 1.42%, Hungary at 0.54%, Romania at 0.1%, Denmark at 0.03%, and Spain at 0.27%.

The significant gap between expectations and reality underscores the importance of not only rolling out gigabit-capable networks but also stimulating demand for those services. Service providers also need to pay attention to home networking equipment. Our research has shown that in markets where legacy broadband technology (such as DSL or coax cable) is being replaced by advanced cable and fiber connections, Wi-Fi performance can lag behind ethernet. Wi-Fi speeds typically range from 30-40% of ethernet, indicating a need to accelerate the adoption of more advanced Wi-Fi technologies and optimize the home network environment.

Median download and upload disparities

Median speeds are a standard metric for measuring performance, but there’s more to the story for the end-user experience. Access technology, be it DSL, cable, or fiber, as well as customer premises equipment and end-user devices, significantly influence the user experience. In our recent article, we highlighted how the persistent use of legacy and underperforming Wi-Fi standards in home networks can hamper efforts to provide the best network experience to customers despite progress in terms of fiber rollout and adoption.

According to Speedtest Intelligence® in Q3 2023, across Europe, Denmark had the fastest median download speed for fixed broadband (196.43 Mbps), followed by Spain (176.08 Mbps), France (170.51 Mbps), and Romania (166.39 Mbps). Notably, several of those countries have a substantial gap between median download and upload speeds. The type of broadband technology implemented can heavily influence the divergence between download and upload performance. Nations still reliant on DSL and cable often exhibit lower median upload speeds and a wider gap between upload and download speeds. On one hand, the UK and Germany lag behind other countries in broadband infrastructure upgrades due to their reliance on copper-based technologies and cable networks and are at the tail end of the ranking.

On the other hand, Sweden, with a 63% Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) penetration rate in 2022, has the narrowest gap between download and upload speeds. Forward-thinking broadband infrastructure and significant municipal involvement have positioned Sweden to reach the EC’s goals in the coming years. France, Spain, Denmark, Romania, and Portugal are also making significant progress toward achieving full-fiber coverage, with France expecting a full-fiber rollout by 2025. As fiber broadband adoption increases, the gap between download and upload speeds will narrow, mainly because fiber subscriptions are typically offered with symmetrical speeds, where users would experience the same level of speed for both download and upload usage.

However, even when we look at “the best-connected” Speedtest users (those seeing speeds in the top 10th percentile of our results), there’s a wide range of performance. Download speeds ranged between 417.23 Mbps and 844.04 Mbps, while the range for upload speeds was even wider, with median upload speeds ranging from 57.11 Mbps to 599.39 Mbps.

When looking at speeds at the 10th percentile, only four countries topped 700 Mbps. France led with a top speed of 844.08 Mbps, followed by Hungary at 765.85 Mbps, Denmark at 734.91 Mbps, and Romania at 704.04 Mbps. Notably, three of these countries (Romania, France, and Denmark) also lead in the top 10% of upload speeds, with all three exceeding 500 Mbps.

While for most countries included in this analysis, top speeds are at least a few hundred Mbps apart, there are a few exceptions. Spain shined bright, with the top 10% of its download and upload speeds closely matched at 611.17 Mbps and 609.17 Mbps, respectively.

Beyond median speeds

To delve deeper into the performance and reliability of internet services across different countries, it can be helpful to look at the expected speed range, i.e., the range of speeds that the majority of users experience. This middle 50% of speeds are captured by the interquartile range, with the lower value of the range, or lower quartile, indicating the bottom 25% of speeds and the upper value of the range, or upper quartile, indicating the top 25% of speeds. Examining Speedtest Intelligence data from Q3 2023, the lower quartile download speed across European countries ranged from 28.15 Mbps to 81.48 Mbps (in other words,, 25% of downloads were below that speed), while upper quartile speeds clocked in between 166.16 Mbps and 441.38 Mbps (i.e., 25% of downloads were above this speed).

Role of AltNets

According to the FTTH Council Europe, alternative operators (AltNets) are playing a significant role in the adoption of fiber in the EU39 region. The EU39 region comprises the EU27, the UK, Iceland, Israel, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, and 4 CIS other countries. In 2021, around 56% of FTTH/B initiatives were led by AltNets, which marks a shift from 2011 when alternative ISPs had a 71% share, and incumbents accounted for only 21% of initiatives.

We looked at data from Omdia to determine whether there is a correlation between the number of active ISPs and the speed of the transition to fiber networks measured by FTTH share of all connections. The relationship is not straightforward and varies significantly depending on each country’s competitive landscape and government initiatives.

Across a number of countries fiber accounts for the majority of subscriptions – Spain comes on top with 81.8%, followed by Romania (81.7%), Sweden (77.5%), and Portugal (62.4%). Spain is a good example of a market that has been migrating to fiber away from copper ahead of the incumbent Telefonica turning off its legacy fixed network in 2024. Furthermore, Spain’s National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has simplified its ‘MARCo offer’, making it easier for alternative operators to access Telefonica’s infrastructure to launch their own fiber optic services.

It is worth noting that countries like the UK and Poland, which have many ISPs, are also leading the way in AltNet-driven fiber initiatives. In our previous article looking at the impact of AltNets in the UK, we concluded that AltNets played an important role. In fact, AltNets provided the top speeds in London, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester, as well as across a number of counties. Public funding has helped facilitate the emergence of fiber ISPs in rural areas where fiber deployment is not commercially viable. Other AltNets like Hyperoptic are already well established, deploying and operating an FTTP network in high-density areas, which connects existing and new multi-dwelling buildings.

Take-up rates come with challenges

As fiber rollout nears completion in some countries, the focus shifts to selling fiber subscriptions to households that are within fiber network coverage. Sweden leads with an 80.1% consumer take-up rate (proportion of households that subscribed to and are actively using fiber-optic broadband services), but Spain, Norway, and France also boast high rates above 70%.

Sweden was the country that pioneered the open access model for fiber networks to drive competition and contributed to the country’s high fiber broadband penetration rates. Fiberhost, a Polish open-access network provider, is a significant beneficiary of EU funds, with 99% of funding for building the country’s fiber network in white spot areas (areas with limited or no access to high-speed internet).

There also has been notable progress in the wholesale networks market in Europe, some of which look to connect remote and rural areas. The Italian wholesale operator, Open Fiber, is partially funded by the country’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), with the goal of connecting the grey areas (where no other operator has plans to develop an NGA network) to gigabit speeds.

However, challenges persist in convincing consumers to switch to full fiber, even in countries with high take-up rates. For instance, a joint venture by Orange conducted a survey in rural areas of France to understand why households with FTTH access hadn’t upgraded to fiber services. The study revealed that 42% found their current internet sufficient, while 37% said incentives would encourage them to upgrade. Incentives and other initiatives are being implemented to migrate customers onto fiber networks in many countries in the region and across the world.

Future Initiatives and Investments

Fiber offers superior internet speeds, lower latency, enhanced security, and environmental sustainability – a noteworthy upgrade from copper networks and also a path forward for some cable operators (instead of DOCSIS 4.0). AltNets are making strides in driving fiber deployment across Europe, pushing toward the EC’s ambitious goals of achieving a gigabit society.

Despite progress, obstacles remain in convincing consumers to fully transition to fiber services. Comprehending consumer behavior, promoting fiber benefits, and inspiring initiatives will all play significant roles in this endeavor. Likewise, continued investments must be made to keep Europe on track to attain its connectivity targets

For more insightful updates on Europe’s fiber connectivity status, look forward to the Network X event in October 2023. It’ll offer a live pulse on the latest developments in fiber connectivity. We will continue to follow European countries’ progress toward Gigabit society and monitor its impact on fixed broadband speeds. If you’d like to learn more about internet speeds and speed performance in other markets around the world, visit the Speedtest Global Index™.

You can also register for our upcoming webinar, “Accelerating Europe’s Gigabit Revolution” on Wednesday, November 8 at 9 a.m. CET (GMT+1). A panel of industry experts will come together to discuss how Gigabit Society fits into Europe’s digital transformation strategy and propose strategies to ensure digital access for all. A recording will be provided for registrants who can’t join the live presentation. Register now.

About the Author

Sylwia Kechiche

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Isla McKetta | January 24, 2018

GOOOOAL: Which World Cup Finalist Scored the Fastest Internet in their Capital City?

Whether you call it soccer or football, everyone calls the World Cup fun. We couldn’t wait for the actual match-ups in June, so we decided to pit the qualifying countries against one another to see who has the fastest internet speeds in their capital cities. The results might surprise you.

Get ready to watch Russia best Brazil and Portugal defeat Iran; meanwhile, Argentina and Nigeria and Belgium and England are preparing for penalty shoot-outs.

Using data from Speedtest Intelligence for Q3-Q4 2017, we’ve calculated which capital cities of World Cup-qualifying countries have the fastest mobile and fixed broadband speeds. We also took a peek at the fastest carriers and internet service providers (ISPs) in each capital using Speed Score, a comprehensive metric that combines measures of internet performance at all levels.

Mobile winners

Iceland’s sixth place ranking for mobile download speed in the Speedtest Global Index^TM virtually assured that Reykjavík would come out at the top of the list of fastest World Cup contenders. Canberra represents Australia well with a second place finish for mobile download speeds among World Cup capitals. And Brussels, Belgium barely surpasses Bern, Switzerland for a third place finish.

**Mobile Internet Speeds**
Capitals of World Cup Qualifying Countries | Q3 – Q4 2017
Country	Capital City	Average Download (Mbps)	Average Upload (Mbps)
Iceland	Reykjavík	55.49	21.53
Australia	Canberra	44.24	12.60
Belgium	Brussels	42.52	16.74
Switzerland	Bern	42.02	17.52
South Korea	Seoul	41.85	14.15
Denmark	Copenhagen	41.78	18.29
Croatia	Zagreb	41.16	16.40
Sweden	Stockholm	40.12	12.63
Spain	Madrid	38.30	14.02
Portugal	Lisbon	30.60	11.39
Serbia	Belgrade	30.33	12.49
France	Paris	29.03	9.26
Poland	Warsaw	26.94	9.84
Germany	Berlin	25.83	9.51
England	London	25.09	11.49
Russia	Moscow	21.89	8.49
Japan	Tokyo	19.89	7.10
Uruguay	Montevideo	19.82	11.49
Mexico	Mexico City	19.11	11.51
Peru	Lima	18.33	12.90
Tunisia	Tunis	18.27	8.07
Brazil	Brasília	18.00	8.64
Morocco	Rabat	17.32	9.76
Colombia	Bogotá	16.87	9.50
Nigeria	Abuja	16.17	6.76
Iran	Tehran	15.05	7.04
Argentina	Buenos Aires	13.77	7.70
Egypt	Cairo	13.15	6.33
Panama	Panama City	12.89	8.45
Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	12.28	8.88
Senegal	Dakar	8.85	3.81
Costa Rica	San José	5.97	3.33

Looking at the group draw, Group A fares the worst with 16th place Moscow, Russia being the capital city with the fastest mobile downloads in the group. In Group B, Spain comes out on top. Australia wins Group C, Iceland takes Group D, Switzerland leads Group E and South Korea has the fastest mobile download speed in Group F. Belgium finishes first in Group G and Poland prevails in Group H, despite a 13th place finish overall.

From a regional perspective, European capitals top the rankings with all 14 European World Cup capitals sitting in the top half of the list. Latin American, Middle Eastern and African cities fare worst. Asia’s two contenders are split with Seoul boasting the fifth fastest mobile download speed among World Cup capitals and Tokyo, Japan coming in 17th.

The fastest World Cup capital in Latin America (Montevideo, Uruguay) shows a 64.3% slower mobile download speed than Reykjavík. First place among African World Cup capitals, Rabat, Morocco is 68.8% slower than Reykjavík for mobile downloads. And Tehran, Iran, the fastest World Cup capital in the Middle East, is 72.9% slower than Reykjavík.

Fastest carriers

We also looked into which carriers were fastest in each of the 32 World Cup capital cities.

With Speed Scores ranging from 8.89 in Dakar, Senegal to 46.57 in Brussels, mobile carrier Orange was fastest in four cities and tied for fastest in one. Vodafone was fastest in both Lisbon, Portugal and Madrid, Spain with comparable Speed Scores in the two locations. The rest of the cities show the diversity of fastest carriers that you might expect from a worldwide competition.

**Fastest Carriers Speeds**
Capitals of World Cup Qualifying Countries | Q3 – Q4 2017
Country	Capital City	Fastest Carrier	Speed Score
Argentina	Buenos Aires	Personal	16.15
Australia	Canberra	Telstra	50.21
Belgium	Brussels	Orange	46.57
Brazil	Brasília	Claro	24.72
Colombia	Bogotá	Avantel	20.93
Costa Rica	San José	ICE	8.30
Croatia	Zagreb	Hrvatski Telekom	49.35
Denmark	Copenhagen	TDC / Telia	45.34 / 45.09
Egypt	Cairo	Orange	16.50
England	London	EE	36.83
France	Paris	Orange	33.15
Germany	Berlin	Telekom	53.54
Iceland	Reykjavík	Nova	64.61
Iran	Tehran	MTN IranCell	15.89
Japan	Tokyo	SoftBank	27.26
Mexico	Mexico City	AT&T	20.26
Morocco	Rabat	inwi	20.51
Nigeria	Abuja	MTN	29.23
Panama	Panama City	Cable & Wireless Panama / Movistar	14.85 / 14.80
Peru	Lima	Entel Peru	20.73
Poland	Warsaw	T-Mobile	36.07
Portugal	Lisbon	Vodafone	42.44
Russia	Moscow	MegaFon	37.06
Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	Zain	13.20
Senegal	Dakar	Orange	8.89
Serbia	Belgrade	Vip mobile	45.56
South Korea	Seoul	LG U+	50.03
Spain	Madrid	Vodafone	40.17
Sweden	Stockholm	Telia	54.49
Switzerland	Bern	Sunrise / Swisscom	42.14 / 41.91
Tunisia	Tunis	Ooredoo / Orange	19.90 / 19.89
Uruguay	Montevideo	Antel	20.35

Fixed broadband winners

Given that Iceland ranks second in the world for fixed broadband download speed on the Speedtest Global Index and has the world’s highest gigabit user penetration (GUP), we’re not surprised to see Reykjavík shut out the competition by coming out on top of World Cup contenders for fixed broadband speed, too. Seoul, South Korea comes in second for fixed broadband download speed among World Cup capitals and Paris, France takes third.

**Fixed Broadband Internet Speeds**
Capitals of World Cup Qualifying Countries | Q3 – Q4 2017
Country	Capital City	Average Download (Mbps)	Average Upload (Mbps)
Iceland	Reykjavík	142.89	154.28
South Korea	Seoul	130.75	131.96
France	Paris	112.58	55.86
Sweden	Stockholm	98.77	66.68
Spain	Madrid	86.59	73.43
Japan	Tokyo	75.88	70.46
Denmark	Copenhagen	72.74	52.13
Switzerland	Bern	68.82	54.44
Poland	Warsaw	62.57	16.19
Portugal	Lisbon	55.80	30.97
England	London	52.53	16.12
Germany	Berlin	46.84	9.52
Russia	Moscow	45.25	42.96
Belgium	Brussels	43.25	9.63
Panama	Panama City	29.11	5.93
Australia	Canberra	28.85	12.46
Serbia	Belgrade	26.45	5.59
Croatia	Zagreb	26.20	11.40
Mexico	Mexico City	24.11	10.14
Uruguay	Montevideo	23.02	5.82
Argentina	Buenos Aires	22.03	4.26
Brazil	Brasília	21.57	5.29
Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	20.93	9.05
Peru	Lima	18.15	3.51
Colombia	Bogotá	13.43	6.48
Morocco	Rabat	11.83	2.51
Iran	Tehran	9.33	4.18
Costa Rica	San José	8.79	4.29
Nigeria	Abuja	8.07	5.27
Tunisia	Tunis	7.82	4.49
Senegal	Dakar	7.42	3.11
Egypt	Cairo	5.61	1.92

Group A again suffers on the fixed side with leader Russia coming in 13th based on Moscow’s fixed broadband download speed. Spain’s still the front-runner of Group B. France takes Group C, Iceland wins Group D, Switzerland tops Group E, South Korea reigns over Group F, England heads up Group G and Japan starts Group H based on average download speeds over fixed broadband in their respective capitals.

European capitals again fare well, with 12 of the 14 placing in the top half of fastest World Cup capitals for fixed broadband download speed. Belgrade, Serbia and Zagreb, Croatia rank 17th and 18th, respectively. Tokyo ranks much better for fixed broadband download speed than for mobile, which puts both Asian World Cup capitals in the top six.

With the exception of Panama City, Panama, which ranks 15th, all Latin American World Cup capitals are in the bottom half of the list for download speed over fixed broadband. As are all Middle Eastern and African capital cities.

Panama City’s fixed broadband download speed is 79.6% slower than Reykjavík’s. Riyadh, Saudia Arabia boasts the title of fastest World Cup capital in the Middle East, but is still 85.4% slower for fixed broadband downloads than Reykjavík. The fastest World Cup capital in Africa — Rabat, Morocco — is 91.7% slower than Reykjavík.

Fastest providers

Comparing Speed Scores for fixed broadband across World Cup capitals, Vodafone had wins in Berlin, Germany and Lisbon and Orange took Paris and tied for first in Madrid. The rest of the fastest ISPs vary by location as listed below:

**Fastest ISPs Speeds**
Capitals of World Cup Qualifying Countries | Q3 – Q4 2017
Country	Capital City	Fastest ISP	Speed Score
Argentina	Buenos Aires	Cablevisión Fibertel	21.72
Australia	Canberra	iiNet	33.23
Belgium	Brussels	Telenet	66.95
Brazil	Brasília	NET Virtua	27.30
Colombia	Bogotá	ETB	19.17
Costa Rica	San José	Cabletica	8.28
Croatia	Zagreb	vip	30.23
Denmark	Copenhagen	Fiberby	103.26
Egypt	Cairo	TE Data	4.84
England	London	Hyperoptic	117.40
France	Paris	Orange	107.20
Germany	Berlin	Vodafone	55.46
Iceland	Reykjavík	Nova	278.06
Iran	Tehran	Mobin Net	11.74
Japan	Tokyo	So-net	118.05
Mexico	Mexico City	Axtel	45.83
Morocco	Rabat	Maroc Telecom	9.25
Nigeria	Abuja	MTN	10.73
Panama	Panama City	Cable Onda	25.08
Peru	Lima	Movistar	16.64
Poland	Warsaw	UPC	82.72
Portugal	Lisbon	Vodafone	61.80
Russia	Moscow	MGTS	62.00
Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	STC	16.46
Senegal	Dakar	Tigo	6.42
Serbia	Belgrade	SBB	34.60
South Korea	Seoul	KT	162.45
Spain	Madrid	Masmovil / Orange	101.52 / 101.34
Sweden	Stockholm	Ownit	158.78
Switzerland	Bern	Fiber7	241.93
Tunisia	Tunis	TOPNET	7.61
Uruguay	Montevideo	Antel	22.01

Did your team not come out as expected? Or are you defending a tight match? Take a Speedtest on Android, iOS or on the web and we’ll check back in on scores closer to the main event.

About the Author

Isla McKetta

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Isla McKetta | April 17, 2018

EU Roaming is Free! But is it Fast?

When the European Commission put an end to roaming charges within the European Union (EU) last summer, they gave residents of member countries the freedom to take their mobile phones with them on vacation without fearing the bill when they got home. But how well are those phones performing when faced with foreign cell towers?

To find out, we took a look at Speedtest data from the first quarter of 2018 to see which countries’ residents are having the best (and worst) internet speed experiences abroad.

How much download speeds drop when you cross a border

The mean download speed in the EU when customers are at home is 30.57 Mbps, but that slows 16.6% to 25.50 Mbps when Europeans roam across a border.

Because your experience of speeds abroad is going to be based on what you’re used to, we compared countries based on the amount download speeds decreased rather than the actual speed abroad. Italians enjoyed a 15.4% increase in download speed when traveling. Estonians, Latvians and the Portuguese also saw faster downloads abroad.

**Mobile Download Speeds**
EU Countries | Q1 2018
Country	Local (Mbps)	Roaming (Mbps)	% Change
Austria	31.62	28.66	-9.4%
Belgium	44.56	26.00	-41.7%
Bulgaria	35.71	22.31	-37.5%
Croatia	34.75	31.36	-9.8%
Cyprus	25.34	23.40	-7.7%
Czech Republic	38.30	25.78	-32.7%
Denmark	42.55	22.40	-47.4%
Estonia	31.98	34.24	7.1%
Finland	32.68	29.99	-8.2%
France	32.35	24.47	-24.4%
Germany	26.03	26.00	-0.1%
Greece	34.48	28.40	-17.6%
Hungary	46.10	26.01	-43.6%
Ireland	19.98	19.00	-4.9%
Italy	30.32	34.98	15.4%
Latvia	27.37	28.97	5.8%
Lithuania	36.80	28.28	-23.2%
Luxembourg	42.43	22.46	-47.1%
Malta	42.14	25.05	-40.6%
Netherlands	53.07	25.46	-52.0%
Poland	22.05	20.29	-8.0%
Portugal	26.45	27.44	3.7%
Romania	28.74	21.95	-23.6%
Slovakia	28.79	23.73	-17.6%
Slovenia	28.42	27.15	-4.5%
Spain	31.94	24.32	-23.9%
Sweden	38.23	26.13	-31.7%
United Kingdom	26.16	21.08	-19.4%

On the other end of the spectrum, Dutch travelers experienced a 52% decrease in download speed when using mobile phones elsewhere in the EU. Residents of Denmark, Luxembourg, Hungary, Belgium and Malta all saw decreases of more than 40% when roaming.

In some cases, the decrease in download speed is due to the country’s relative speed. For example, the Netherlands has recently had the third fastest mobile speeds in the world according to the Speedtest Global Index so its residents are likely to see much slower speeds when traveling anywhere but Norway and Iceland. Other differences are probably better explained by how carriers prioritize out of country traffic, a decision that’s made between each individual carrier in each individual country.

Slow or not, at least roaming no longer comes with extra fees for EU residents. Unless you’re British, of course. With Brexit looming, not only could citizens of the UK have to return to paying roaming fees, the download speed they’ll be paying for abroad will be 19.4% slower than it is at home.

Again, a lot of factors go into what speeds you experience while roaming the continent. We hope this data will help you make an informed choice about your carrier depending on what your roaming data needs are. Share your experience by taking a Speedtest on Android or iOS.

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Isla McKetta

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Isla McKetta | July 24, 2019

Touring Mobile Performance with the Speedtest Global Index

Lire en français

At Ookla we celebrate speed and the individuals and companies that dedicate their lives to being the fastest at whatever they do. That’s why this month’s big race in France is so exciting. To cheer all the worn out tires that go into making a great event, we compared the mobile performance of cyclists’ home countries using the Speedtest Global Index^TM. We also looked at download speed in the race’s start and stop cities to see which has the best internet speed advantage.

Which countries’ mobile speeds are breaking away from the main group

The Speedtest Global Index ranks countries based on their download speeds over mobile and fixed broadband. To honor the big race, we narrowed that field to just the countries competing this year and looked at their mobile performance over the past 12 months. We had to leave Eritrea off the list as there were not sufficient samples in the country during the time period to qualify for the Speedtest Global Index.

mobile-performance-chart-final

Mobile speeds in Norway have exploded to the point that they’ve led the pack every single month for the past year. Even when Norway slipped to second in the world for mobile, behind South Korea, they still led all the countries currently touring. Canada’s mobile speeds started strong and rallied to surpass Australia and the Netherlands. These four countries were up in front of the pack for the entire year.

Up next in the chasing group, there was a lot more movement. France started a long climb in September 2018 that took them from 29th in the world for mobile download speed to 17th. This also helped France pass New Zealand and Austria. Belgium started strong but then they fell back in the bunch. The Czech Republic regrouped slightly in April to improve their ranking to a career high of 11, but recently they’ve fallen back to just above where they ranked 12 months ago.

All the way back in the broom wagon, Colombia fell behind early and couldn’t find their second wind. Costa Rica’s decline started later but still left them in second to last place.

Mobile performance in Tour cities

Cyclists and fans are visiting many different cities for the different stages of the race. We compared mean download speeds over mobile in some of the start and stop cities during Q2 2019 to see which were in front and which were chasing. Note that according to the Ookla 5G Map^TM, no cities in France or Belgium have commercially-available 5G as of this writing.

**Mobile Performance in Tour Start and Stop Cities**
Speedtest^Ⓡ Data | Q2 2019
City	Mean Download (Mbps)	Mean Upload (Mbps)
Saint-Étienne, France	60.99	13.08
Reims, France	59.05	13.95
Nancy, France	58.48	14.66
Mulhouse, France	57.60	13.57
Toulouse, France	55.31	12.68
Belfort, France	53.46	13.19
Tarbes, France	53.26	12.92
Pau, France	52.27	13.14
Nîmes, France	51.10	12.84
Rambouillet, France	51.09	12.13
Colmar, France	50.52	13.97
Mâcon, France	48.57	14.42
Paris, France	46.76	11.18
Brussels, Belgium	45.81	16.56
Albi, France	44.49	12.22
Chalon-sur-Saône, France	42.99	12.89
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France	35.44	11.93
Gap, France	27.77	8.24

Saint-Étienne led a tight pack that included Reims, Nancy and Mulhouse which all showed mobile download speeds above 57 Mbps. Toulouse, Belfort, Tarbes, Pau, Nîmes, Rambouillet and Colmar were chasing with mobile download speeds between 50 and 56 Mbps.

We hope that last-place Gap and second-to-last Saint-Dié-des-Vosges were regrouping rather than taking a rest day as they showed mobile download speeds that were significantly slower than the rest of the cities.

Not all locations had sufficient samples to be included in our list, so if you want to know what mobile speeds are like at the Pont du Gard (or anywhere else), take a Speedtest on Android or iOS.

Chapeau to all the teams! May the rest of the race feel flat and fast.

Embarquez pour le tour des performances mobiles avec le Speedtest Global Index

Chez Ookla, nous vouons une véritable passion à la vitesse. Et alors que la Grande Boucle bat son plein en France, nous comptons bien la célébrer comme il se doit ! En parallèle de la lutte acharnée que se livrent les valeureuses équipes, nous avons comparé les performances mobiles des pays d’origine des coureurs en utilisant le Speedtest Global Index^TM. Nous avons également mesuré la vitesse de téléchargement dans les villes-étapes pour découvrir laquelle peut se vanter de disposer du meilleur débit Internet.

Performances mobiles : quels pays s’échappent du peloton ?

Le Speedtest Global Index classe les pays en fonction de leur vitesse de téléchargement haut débit mobile et fixe. Pour rendre hommage au Tour, nous avons uniquement examiné les performances mobiles des pays en lice au cours des douze derniers mois. L’Érythrée n’est malheureusement pas au rendez-vous en raison d’un nombre d’échantillons de données insuffisant.

mobile-performance-chart-final

Grâce à une vitesse de téléchargement mobile ultrarapide, la Norvège a trusté la première place du classement tout au long de l’année. Si le pays a rétrogradé à la deuxième place mondiale juste derrière la Corée du Sud, il a littéralement survolé les débats dans le cadre de notre compétition. De son côté, le Canada a démarré fort, en parvenant même à dépasser l’Australie et les Pays-Bas. Ces quatre pays ont réussi une formidable échappée tout au long de l’année.

Derrière, le groupe de poursuivants s’est organisé pour réduire l’écart. Grâce à une folle remontée en septembre 2018, la France est passée de la 29e à la 17e place mondiale, coiffant au poteau la Nouvelle-Zélande et l’Autriche. Après un très bon départ, la Belgique s’est malheureusement retrouvée engluée dans le peloton. La République Tchèque a mis un petit coup d’accélérateur en avril pour atteindre la 11e place (une première !). Elle a ensuite connu une baisse de régime qui l’a vu terminer juste au-dessus de son classement de l’année dernière.

En queue de peloton, la Colombie a rapidement été distancée et n’est jamais parvenue à trouver un second souffle. Malgré ses bonnes intentions, le Costa Rica a quant à lui fini avant-dernier.

Performances mobiles dans les villes-étapes

Les coureurs et les fans visitent de nombreuses villes lors des différentes étapes du Tour. Nous avons comparé les vitesses moyennes de téléchargement mobile dans certaines de ces villes au cours du deuxième trimestre 2019 afin d’établir un classement. Notez que selon l’Ookla 5G Map^TM, aucune ville de France ou de Belgique ne propose actuellement la 5G.

**Performances mobiles dans les villes-étapes**
Données Speedtest^Ⓡ Data | Deuxième trimestre 2019
Ville	Débit descendant moyen (Mbps)	Débit ascendant moyen (Mbps)
Saint-Étienne, France	60,99	13,08
Reims, France	59,05	13,95
Nancy, France	58,48	14,66
Mulhouse, France	57,60	13,57
Toulouse, France	55,31	12,68
Belfort, France	53,46	13,19
Tarbes, France	53,26	12,92
Pau, France	52,27	13,14
Nîmes, France	51,10	12,84
Rambouillet, France	51,09	12,13
Colmar, France	50,52	13,97
Mâcon, France	48,57	14,42
Paris, France	46,76	11,18
Bruxelles, Belgique	45,81	16,56
Albi, France	44,49	12,22
Chalon-sur-Saône, France	42,99	12,89
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France	35,44	11,93
Gap, France	27,77	8,24

Au coude-à-coude avec Reims, Nancy et Mulhouse, Saint-Étienne s’est imposée dans un groupe relevé affichant une vitesse de téléchargement mobile supérieure à 57 Mbps. Dans son sillage, Toulouse, Belfort, Tarbes, Pau, Nîmes, Rambouillet et Colmar ont fait bonne figure avec une vitesse comprise entre 50 et 56 Mps.

Gap et Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, respectivement dernier et avant-dernier, n’ont jamais semblé pouvoir suivre le rythme du peloton, avec une vitesse bien inférieure à celle des autres villes.

Faute d’un nombre d’échantillons de données suffisant, cette liste n’est pas exhaustive. Si vous souhaitez connaître la vitesse de téléchargement mobile de Pont du Gard ou de toute autre ville, effectuez un Speedtest sur Android ou iOS.

Un grand bravo à toutes les équipes ! Nous vous souhaitons bonne chance pour le reste de la course !

About the Author

Isla McKetta

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Isla McKetta | September 4, 2019

In-Depth Analysis of Changes in World Internet Performance Using the Speedtest Global Index

A lot has changed in the two years since 2017 when we first began ranking mobile and fixed broadband speeds of countries around the world with the Speedtest Global Index^TM. 5G is being deployed around the world and fiber continues to make gigabit speeds a reality in more and more countries. We’ve been tracking it all and are here to report on how much speeds have increased, which countries are leading internet performance and which are falling behind, and what trends we see across continents.

World mobile speed increased 21.4% with fixed broadband up 37.4%

World-Download-Speeds-2019-OG2

Looking just at the last year, the world’s mean download speed over mobile increased 21.4% from 22.81 Mbps in July 2018 to 27.69 Mbps in July 2019. Mean upload speed over mobile increased 18.1% from 9.13 Mbps to 10.78 Mbps. The world average for download speed over fixed broadband increased 37.4% from 46.48 Mbps in July 2018 to 63.85 Mbps in July 2019. Mean upload speed over fixed broadband increased 48.9% from 22.52 Mbps to 33.53 Mbps.

Shake-ups in the country rankings for internet performance

Fastest-Countries-Mobile-2018-2019

Mobile speeds in the fastest countries have skyrocketed in the past year which has dramatically shifted the rankings. South Korea, which was not even in the top ten a year ago, saw a 165.9% increase in mean download speed over mobile during the past 12 months, in large part due to 5G. Switzerland’s mean download speed increased 23.5%. Canada’s was up 22.2%, Australia 21.2%, the Netherlands 17.3%, UAE 11.1%, Malta 10.3% and Norway 5.8%. Qatar remained in the top ten, although the country’s mean download speed over mobile actually dropped 1.4% from July 2018 to July 2019.

Individual mobile operators can make a huge difference in a country’s speeds. In 2017 we were excited to see Telenor uncap their mobile speeds, which drove Norway to the top of the Speedtest Global Index. A big part of South Korea’s mobile success in the past year is the way KT, LG U+ and SK Telecom banded together to release 5G at the same time. Switzerland has also benefited from 5G and Sunrise leads the country with 262 5G deployments across the country while Swisscomm has 52.

Fastest-Countries-Fixed-2018-2019

Fixed broadband rankings on the Speedtest Global Index have not changed as dramatically during the past 12 months as those on mobile. Singapore remains the fastest country with an increase in mean download speed over fixed broadband of 5.6%. Taiwan had the largest jump in speeds among the top 10 with a 166.5% improvement in fixed download speed between July 2018 and July 2019. Mean download speed over fixed broadband increased 52.4% in South Korea, 26.4% in Macau, 21.7% in Romania, 21.0% in Switzerland, 19.3% in the United States and 3.5% in Hong Kong.

Monaco and Andorra did not have enough tests to qualify for the Speedtest Global Index one year ago, but massive fixed broadband improvements in both countries inspired us to lower our test count threshold for inclusion and also share these smaller countries’ success stories.

Technologies paving the way: 5G and gigabit

The presence of 5G is not enough to change a market

As discussed above, 5G has the potential to rocket a country to the top of the mobile rankings on the Speedtest Global Index. In practice, we’ve seen 5G speeds that were over 1000% faster than those on LTE.

Mobile-Download-Speeds-by-Country

In reality, though, unless 5G is commercially available widely across a country and from all mobile operators (as was the case in South Korea), the change in speeds at the country level is not that significant. Though commercial 5G was launched widely across Switzerland by Sunrise and Swisscom in April 2019, the country’s mean download speed only increased 2.8% in the three months since. The average mobile download speed in the U.S. has actually declined slightly since 5G was initially deployed. This is because 5G is still only available in a very limited number of markets to consumers with 5G-capable devices.

Visit the Ookla 5G Map for the latest on 5G deployments across the globe.

Gigabit is a game-changer, if you can get it

Unlike 5G, fiber connections have been rolling out since 2007, opening up the possibility of gigabit-speed fixed broadband. That said, it’s costly and time-intensive to lay miles and miles of fiber so progress has varied widely across the globe.

Gigabit-Test---Performance_Singapore-1

Geographically small countries like Singapore have the advantage when it comes to fiber, because It’s easier and cheaper to lay fiber optic cable across the country’s small footprint. Singaporean internet service providers (ISPs) have used this advantage to go beyond mere gigabit and offer connections as fast as 10 Gbps. This is reflected both in Singapore’s dominance of the fixed rankings on the Speedtest Global Index and in the fact that 2.87% of their total Speedtest results over fixed broadband are gigabit-speed (800 Mbps or higher).

Gigabit-Test---Performance_Brazil-1

Brazil offers a good contrast for how difficult it can be for gigabit to reach the masses. While the first Brazilian ISP to offer fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) initially did so in 2007, easy access to gigabit speeds was slow to follow. However, that may be starting to change. Between June and July 2019 we saw a large uptick in gigabit-speed results in Brazil, where the proportion of gigabit speed tests increased from 0.02% of total fixed broadband tests to 0.17%. This corresponded with a large increase in mean download speed at the country level.

Comparing world mobile and fixed broadband at a glance

We were curious to see just how different internet performance experiences were around the world, so we plotted average mobile download speed against average download speed on fixed broadband. All of the graphs below use a percentage difference from the global average, a number that changed between 2018 and 2019.

fade-Performance-vs-Global---Quadrant-All

Speed Leaders

There was not much change in the list of countries that showed above-average download speeds on both mobile and fixed broadband between July 2018 and July 2019, the “Speed Leaders.” What did change was that fixed broadband speeds increased significantly enough among the group to bring the whole pack closer to Singapore and Hong Kong. On the mobile axis, South Korea’s major increase in download speed made that country more of an outlier, pushing the boundaries of what great performance can look like.

Fixed-Focused countries

Between July 2018 and July 2019 we saw the number of countries considered to be “Fixed-Focused” (having faster download speeds over fixed broadband than the world average while their average mobile download speeds were slower than average) increase. Ireland was the only country that solidly fit this category in 2018. Thailand and Chile started near the midline for fixed speeds and below-average for mobile speeds in 2018. 2019 found both countries squarely in the Fixed-Focused category. Israel also edged into this category as their mobile download speed fell between July 2018 and 2019.

Mobile-Focused countries

The “Mobile-Focused” category saw the most movement between July 2018 and July 2019 as some countries (the UAE and Qatar) increased their fixed speeds sufficiently to join the Speed Leaders. Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s mobile download speed increased year-over-year to move them into the Mobile-Focused quadrant. Georgia’s mobile download speed decreased enough to move them from Mobile-Focused to Speed Laggers.

It will be interesting to see how many of these Mobile-Focused countries double down on their mobile investments and explore 5G alternatives to fixed broadband.

Speed Laggers

No country wants to be in the position of having slower than average mobile and fixed broadband speeds. We saw 57 countries in this “Speed Laggers” quadrant in July 2018 and 78 in July 2019. This increase is mostly due to our expansion of the number of countries we consider for the Speedtest Global Index based on test count. There were enough countries in this category that we’ve considered them separately by continent below.

Regional views of mobile and fixed broadband performance

Mobile-and-Fixed-Broadband-Improvement-by-Continent-02

We aggregated Speedtest results by continent to analyze mobile and fixed broadband performance by continent.

Mobile-and-Fixed-Performance-by-Continent-01

Asia had the highest percentage increase in mobile download speed followed by North America, Oceania, South America, Africa and Europe. Oceania had the fastest mean download speed in July 2019. North America placed second, Europe third, Asia fourth, South America fifth and Africa sixth.

On the fixed broadband side, South America saw the highest percentage increase in download speed. Asia came in second, Europe third, Africa fourth, North America fifth and Oceania sixth. North America had the fastest mean download speed in July 2019. Europe was second, Asia third, and Oceania fourth. As we saw with mobile, South America and Africa again ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.

A zoomed-in view of the speed quadrants separated by continent offers a more detailed view of each country’s role in these rankings.

Africa mostly lags in internet speeds

2019-Performance-vs-Global---Africa

In July 2019, all but two African countries in the Speedtest Global Index fell into the Speed Laggers category, having mobile and fixed broadband speeds that were below global averages. The exceptions were South Africa and Guinea, which both had fast enough mobile speeds to place them in the mobile-focused quadrant.

Asian markets show a wide breadth of internet performance

2019-Performance-vs-Global---Asia

Asia was the most diverse continent we examined in terms of internet performance. We saw a plurality of countries in each of the four quadrants in July 2019. Most of the Speed Leaders were in East Asia: China, Hong Kong (SAR), Japan, Macau (SAR), South Korea, and Taiwan. If we include Singapore, another Speed Leader, these are among the wealthiest nations in Asia (using GDP per capita). Two of Asia’s Fixed-Focused countries are in Southeast Asia (Malaysia and Thailand) and one is in the Middle East (Israel).

The Speed Laggers category contained countries from South Asia (including Afghanistan, India and Pakistan), Southeast Asia (Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam) and the Middle East (Jordan). Mobile-Focused countries in Asia were mostly Middle Eastern, including Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

European mobile performance is mostly strong, fixed varies

2019-Performance-vs-Global---Europe

With the exception of Ireland, the European countries on the Speedtest Global Index fell into the Speed Leaders, Mobile-Focused, and Speed Laggers categories. All of the Speed Laggers (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Ukraine) were from Eastern Europe. Countries from Southeast Europe (including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Moldova, Serbia and Slovenia) and Central Europe (Austria and the Czech Republic) made up the bulk of the Mobile-Focused category.

Speed Leaders included countries from the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), the Nordics (Denmark, Norway and Sweden), Central Europe (Poland and Romania), and Western Europe (including Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain).

North American internet performance is sharply divided

2019-Performance-vs-Global---North-America

Canada and the U.S. are the only two North American countries in the Speed Leaders category. Panama is the only North American country under Fixed-Focused. Mexico and all of the Central American countries fall into the Speed Laggers category. There are no North American countries that are Mobile-Focused.

Each country in Oceania has a very different internet story

2019-Performance-vs-Global---Ocean

Oceania is represented in three of the four quadrants: Speed Leaders (New Zealand), Mobile-Focused (Australia) and Speed Laggers (Papua New Guinea) with Fiji straddling the divide between Speed Laggers and Mobile-Focused.

South America mostly lags in mobile and fixed internet speeds

2019-Performance-vs-Global---South-America

Most of the South American countries represented on the Speedtest Global Index are in the Speed Laggers quadrant (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela). Chile is an exception, being part of the Fixed-Focused group, as is Uruguay which sits in Mobile-Focused.

Global internet speeds are improving on average and 5G and gigabit are compounding those advances where available. However, not all countries are benefitting equally. We’ll be interested to see how 5G continues to push mobile speeds in the next year and also whether 5G Wi-Fi becomes a game changer for fixed broadband. Remember to check the Speedtest Global Index on a monthly basis for updated country rankings. And take a Speedtest to make sure your experience is represented in your country’s averages.

Editor’s Note: This article was edited on September 10, 2019 to correct an error in the labeling on the first image. The colors in a later image were updated for consistency.

About the Author

Isla McKetta

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Ookla | March 13, 2020

Tracking COVID-19’s Impact on Global Internet Performance (Updated July 20)

We are no longer updating this article as internet speeds in most countries have stabilized to pre-pandemic levels. For ongoing information about internet speeds in specific countries, visit the Speedtest Global Index^TM or contact our press team.

Ookla^® closely monitored the impact of COVID-19 on the performance and quality of global mobile and broadband internet networks in the early days of the pandemic. We shared regular information based on Ookla data to assist in the understanding of this unprecedented situation. You can still download the July 20, 2020 CSV here which contains all the public data we tracked in this article. If you are looking for information on internet or online service outages, please check Downdetector^®.

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Ookla

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Isla McKetta | August 2, 2022

Find Out Which 50 Top European Vacation Destinations Have the Fastest Mobile Internet Speeds

Vacation season is upon us with millions of tourists already flocking to Europe’s top summer destinations despite the heat. Whether you’re a European looking for the best “staycation” or an American taking advantage of the exchange rates, our analysis of mobile internet performance in 50 popular destinations across the continent should help you see how well you will be able to connect (or disconnect, should you so choose) on vacation this summer.

We divided these towns and cities into four categories that might appeal to different types of travelers: big cities, beach life, cultural havens, and forest getaways. Then we compared Speedtest Intelligence® data for median download speeds and multi-server latency across each category. Of course many of the best vacation destinations belong in multiple categories, so be sure to check each list to find your favorite locale, and you’ll want to remember that your experience may vary based on your carrier’s roaming agreement.

“Big cities” with internet performance as exciting as the lifestyle

Oslo, Norway topped our list of 15 European vacation destinations full of big city excitement with the fastest mobile internet with a median download speed of 156.99 Mbps during Q2 2022. Perfect if you’re planning to do live updates from the Øya Festival. Two other Nordic cities rounded out the top three with Stockholm, Sweden showing a median download speed of 136.74 Mbps and Copenhagen, Denmark coming in at 133.16 Mbps. With speeds like these you should be able to host as many “see how glorious my vacation is?” video calls as you want.

There was a large gap between these three cities and the next fastest group, led by Lisbon, Portugal at 86.49 Mbps. Istanbul, Turkey and Rome, Italy had the lowest median download speeds on this list. These are still adequate mobile speeds, especially if you want to lean into the vacation experience and report back on it later (if ever).

Nicosia, Cyprus had the lowest median multi-server latency on our “big city” list at 17 ms during Q2 2022. This metric measures how quickly your device gets a response after you’ve sent out a request during three stages so you can understand if you’ll run into unnecessary lags in your connection. We’ve previously reported how latency in Europe increased while roaming, and higher latency could mean that you encounter glitches in video calls or even have to shut down apps to get your phone to respond in a timely fashion. Rome had the highest latency on this list.

Where internet speeds are fit for “beach life”

Nothing says summer like relaxing on the beach. If your beach vacation needs fast internet access, surf the web in Biarritz, France and Korčula, Croatia. These two locales had the fastest median download speeds on our beach life list during Q2 2022 at 155.65 Mbps and 133.67 Mbps, respectively, though this is not a statistically significant difference. Varna, Bulgaria and Faro, Portugal rounded out the top four at 104.00 Mbps and 101.74 Mbps, respectively.

Amalfi, Italy and Cefalù, Italy are good beach destinations if you’re looking for encouragement to log off. With median download speeds of 31.40 Mbps and 38.18 Mbps, respectively, during Q2 2022, your internet connection should be adequate (though less inspiring than the Tyrrhenian Sea).

Piran, Slovenia had the lowest median multi-server latency (20 ms) on this list while Cefalù had the highest (56 ms).

“Cultural havens” with research-ready internet speeds

Travelers looking for maximum culture and fast internet speeds can do no better than Tromsø, Norway, which had a median download speed on mobile of 251.52 Mbps during Q2 2022, almost 2.3x faster than runner-up Amsterdam, Netherlands. Whether you’ve traveled to the northernmost bit of Norway for the wooden houses, one of the many summer festivals, or just to escape the heat, you’ll have fast enough internet to thoroughly research all the places you can go if you extend your vacation.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you’re traveling to Yerevan, Armenia or Florence, Italy to enjoy the museums and other cultural highlights of either, you might want to take pictures instead. With median download speeds of 24.11 Mbps and 29.84 Mbps, respectively, these cities were the slowest on this list. All the more reason to immerse yourself in the sights and wait to connect to Wi-Fi before uploading your photos.

Helsingør, Denmark had the lowest median multi-server latency, while Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom had the highest. High latency can impede the performance of your phone even when you’re in an area with great speeds — something to keep in mind if you’re relying on your phone to locate the next Fringe venue.

Navigate internet speeds in “forest getaways”

Some people swear by the forest for the best vacations, especially in the heat of summer. The Alpine cities of Innsbruck, Austria and Digne-les-Bains, France had the fastest median download speeds over mobile on our list of forest getaways during Q2 2022 at 87.34 Mbps and 67.30 Mbps, respectively, though there was no statistical winner between the two. There was also no statistically significant difference between the median download speeds in Zakopane, Poland (43.52 Mbps); Killarney, Ireland (35.90 Mbps); and Sighișoara, Romania (30.48 Mbps). While you may prefer to be offline in the woods, having a strong and fast internet connection available can help you navigate with GPS, check out the names of all the flora you’re encountering, or reach help in case of emergency.

Sighișoara and Killarney had the lowest median multi-server latency on this list at 24 ms and 25 ms, respectively. Digne had the highest latency at 36 ms.

Regardless of where you travel, mobile internet performance will affect your trip. We hope this list prepares you for the getaway you want. If we missed your favorite European vacation destination, take a Speedtest® on Android or iOS to show off your speeds and tweet us your suggestions for next year’s list or share your ideas via this Google form.

About the Author

Isla McKetta

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Isla McKetta | August 1, 2023

European Vacation: Your Guide to Roam Like at Home Performance this Summer

Summer is here and with it the August vacation season that most of Europe has been waiting for. We’re here with fresh data from Speedtest Intelligence® to help you know in advance if your phone will be a help or a hindrance on your travels. We’ve examined results from Android devices in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (U.K.) during Q2 2023 and included data on 5G performance to see if “Roam Like at Home” is living up to its promise.

5G boosts European roaming speeds but latency varies

Speed and latency are two important indicators of online performance. Speed will have a greater effect on streaming content while latency will affect gaming and video chatting. Both come into play while browsing online maps for that hot new gelato place your friends told you about.

While the EU extended “Roam Like at Home” regulations until 2032, our previous analyses demonstrated that mobile speeds are usually slower when roaming than when exploring your home country. The actual speeds vary dramatically based on roaming agreements between mobile operators, something you can’t really control unless you’re prepared to do the research then shop for a whole new plan before your trip. What you can control is whether you spring for 5G before your big trip. The data below represents the local speeds and multi-server latency for each country as well as those experienced by residents of the named country while roaming in the EU or the U.K. during Q2 2023.

Roaming speeds can’t live up to local performance

Median Mobile Roaming Performance in Europe

Speedtest Intelligence^Ⓡ | Q2 2023

Country	Local Download (Mbps)	Roaming Download (Mbps)	Local 5G Download (Mbps)	Roaming 5G Download (Mbps)
Austria	59.28	42.77	161.00	80.51
Belgium	48.00	59.86	157.23	124.64
Bulgaria	78.27	48.97	252.75	93.24
Croatia	73.65	47.86	184.29	124.38
Cyprus	56.93	40.83	197.22	64.24
Czechia	46.50	31.96	104.36	72.26
Denmark	118.48	51.74	206.95	115.82
Estonia	64.99	77.51	*	*
Finland	78.00	53.43	217.13	106.54
France	61.64	43.46	187.42	95.56
Germany	46.30	39.54	114.07	84.27
Greece	57.41	66.17	143.26	153.28
Hungary	40.44	48.28	85.12	132.98
Ireland	34.49	36.10	98.70	85.38
Italy	36.97	37.68	130.85	99.38
Latvia	59.73	65.13	220.51	146.15
Lithuania	64.70	53.04	*	*
Luxembourg	74.86	46.88	*	*
Malta	44.56	48.11	109.97	110.80
Netherlands	96.77	37.61	128.04	87.84
Poland	42.14	34.23	78.82	99.51
Portugal	57.86	39.91	212.95	79.88
Romania	43.34	59.59	153.35	99.84
Slovakia	43.16	41.53	139.53	85.16
Slovenia	52.73	49.86	145.83	95.50
Spain	32.33	35.77	85.75	116.48
Sweden	84.00	51.24	160.93	129.43
United Kingdom	40.74	48.06	108.74	98.92

Although EU residents can roam call, text, and surf without additional charges, a drop in speed is an issue while roaming according to Q2 2023 data. Residents from 17 countries showed faster local download speeds than roaming speeds when considering results over all technologies during Q2 2023. The 11 exceptions were Romania (which was much faster roaming), Belgium, Hungary, Estonia, the U.K, Greece, and Spain, which all showed faster roaming speeds, and Latvia, Malta, Ireland, and Italy which showed only slightly improved speeds.

While roaming speeds varied widely based on country of origin, every country on this list saw much higher median download speeds when roaming on 5G than roaming on all technologies. Despite this uplift, 20 countries showed faster local 5G download speeds than roaming 5G speeds during Q2 2023. The exceptions were Hungary, Spain, and Poland, which all saw faster 5G roaming than locally, while Greece had marginally better 5G roaming than at home, and people from Malta didn’t really see any major difference. Estonia, Lithuania, and Luxembourg did not have enough 5G samples to qualify for analysis.

Latency suffers awfully when roaming

Median Mobile Roaming Latency in Europe

Speedtest Intelligence^Ⓡ | Q2 2023

Country	Local Multi-server Latency (ms)	Roaming Multi-server Latency (ms)	Local 5G Multi-server Latency (ms)	5G Multi-server Latency (ms)
Austria	32.19	91.24	30.96	111.08
Belgium	36.51	84.96	31.89	67.61
Bulgaria	31.72	125.60	26.41	124.63
Croatia	39.03	85.25	35.96	80.37
Cyprus	27.90	200.18	23.52	184.68
Czechia	34.72	80.18	30.77	78.72
Denmark	29.47	94.77	28.08	81.85
Estonia	33.10	87.00	*	*
Finland	33.67	102.84	32.16	99.14
France	46.97	92.61	44.39	87.49
Germany	41.78	87.19	39.07	77.57
Greece	38.16	137.29	34.63	132.91
Hungary	36.27	85.39	35.06	77.26
Ireland	36.21	116.62	31.70	118.47
Italy	50.87	100.20	49.96	93.87
Latvia	29.88	101.91	26.28	94.70
Lithuania	34.03	107.79	*	*
Luxembourg	33.45	67.70	*	*
Malta	47.44	146.57	38.69	135.43
Netherlands	33.24	83.25	31.17	79.81
Poland	42.41	108.69	40.25	100.36
Portugal	35.98	123.05	31.62	126.54
Romania	40.65	122.91	34.22	121.21
Slovakia	30.47	80.28	26.39	70.96
Slovenia	30.61	76.68	27.70	75.27
Spain	51.53	112.81	47.11	102.94
Sweden	37.52	114.69	32.97	99.48
United Kingdom	50.45	111.01	46.04	107.59

Residents of every country surveyed had a much higher multi-server latency when roaming during Q2 2023. This is because roaming signals are routed through a user’s home network, making latency a significant issue for Europeans when traveling. The difference was smallest in Italy and France where locals had about a 97% higher latency when roaming compared to at home. On the other end of the scale, residents of Cyprus saw over a 615% higher latency while roaming compared to at home. A high latency means a long response time for any request you send over the internet, perhaps adding more frustration to your vacation than you would want.

The results were similar over 5G with Italy showing the smallest difference between latency while roaming and at home (about 88% greater) and Cyprus having the largest difference (about 685%). Surprisingly, 5G did not reliably improve multi-server latency.

What this data tells you is that it’s worth upgrading to 5G before a trip if speed is your main concern. Whether 5G will help you with your latency will depend heavily on which country you are traveling from. Regardless, you should expect a high latency while roaming. Plan ahead accordingly.

Outbound roaming speeds vary dramatically

As discussed above, roaming speeds depend heavily on where you are traveling from, where you are traveling to, and what agreements your home mobile operator has with operators in the country you’re visiting. That said, it’s fun to look at what’s possible, so we looked at the very best and very worst roaming speeds in Europe during Q2 2023.

Fastest roaming speeds in Europe

Customers from Italy roaming in Portugal saw one of the fastest median roaming download speeds over 5G in all of Europe during Q2 2023 at 317.94 Mbps. Estonians roaming in Finland saw a 278.69 Mbps median 5G download speed, and Finns in Sweden experienced a median 5G download of 252.57 Mbps.

Looking at the highest results from all technologies combined, Latvians roaming in Finland experienced a median download speed of 137.49 Mbps, while Greeks saw median download speeds of 129.75 while roaming in Bulgaria and 125.83 Mbps while roaming in Austria.

Slowest roaming speeds in Europe

On the other end of the scale, Slovakian visitors to Poland had one of the slowest median download speeds over all technology while roaming during the same time period at 10.82 Mbps. Polish roamers saw a median download speed of 13.27 Mbps in the U.K. and 14.78 Mbps in Romania. Ten of the 20 slowest roaming speeds on our country-by-country list for all technologies were for Europeans roaming in the U.K. This means that travelers going to the U.K are not only seeing poorer performance, they could also be paying more for the privilege as they do not benefit from “Roam Like at Home” regulations.

Germans in Italy had the slowest median 5G download speed on our list during Q2 2023 at 33.64 Mbps. Austrians in the U.K. saw a median download speed over 5G of 41.57 Mbps, and Portuguese roamers in Spain experienced a median download speed over 5G of 44.18 Mbps.

Whether you choose to roam, pick up a local SIM or eSIM, or simply spend less time online, we hope this information helps you make the most of your vacation. If you have an extra minute between activities, take a Speedtest® to see how your performance compares.

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Isla McKetta

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Kathy Macdonald | February 16, 2023

European Commission Uses Ookla® Data to Demonstrate Territorial Disparities and the Digital Divide in the EU

The characteristics of places might not define the identity of people living there, but they affect the daily life of every citizen and can prevent them from reaching their full potential and the best life. Persisting territorial disparities, related to phenomena such as depopulation or limited access to services, can become even more visible by observing places rather than individuals. In fact, growing territorial inequality, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, limits on people’s lifestyle and life choices, and creates a feeling of being left behind.

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission recently published a report focused on understanding and identifying territorial disparities and challenges in the EU across a variety of sectors, including access to broadband and the performance of the digital connection, using the Speedtest® by Ookla® Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance data for Q4 2020. A full comprehension of these challenges and their interlinkages is essential to produce evidence to improve policies, especially for the benefit of those living in vulnerable conditions, in line with the principle of leaving no place and no one behind.

Key findings

High-speed broadband increasingly represents an essential infrastructure to drive the economic and social development of territories. Therefore, the lack of broadband network or poor access to a high-speed connection might cause significant disparities among places and citizens and leave some areas behind in terms of access to services and opportunities, diminishing the quality of life of residents. The connectivity gap, often recognized as an urban-rural digital divide, represents an important challenge to face for some countries and policy makers and may require a joint effort by both public and private initiatives.

Results show that significant differences exist in network speed across the EU-27 countries. Territorial disparities are even more relevant, with most Member States in urban areas enjoying easy access to the highest fixed broadband available (> 100 Mbps), whereas in rural areas a significant percentage of residents have access to an average speed below the minimum standard of 30 Mbps. Only very few countries show access to over 100 Mbps broadband for rural populations (Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Luxembourg).

Regarding mobile broadband, the average speed is generally lower than fixed broadband in all countries, with only a few areas having more than 100 Mbps average speed. Interestingly, the Alpine region across France, Italy and Austria appears to have better connectivity with mobile broadband (over 30 Mbps) than with fixed broadband (under 30 Mbps). The same pattern can be observed in Central Italy and Sardinia, Croatia, and partially in Greece.

To strengthen the evidence of such urban-rural digital divide, the spatial patterns of access to broadband were combined with the population density and the classification of degree of urbanization of municipalities in cities, towns and rural areas (see Figure 01). Results confirm that urban areas present the highest speed in broadband connection, revealing how the areas already most connected in terms of physical networks (i.e., with roads and railways) are also the most connected from the digital point of view. Access to a good broadband connection is most problematic in remote municipalities (with 45 minutes or more from the nearest city by drive), where the average speed is significantly lower than the national averages, especially in countries such as Belgium, Spain, France, and Portugal.

To explore the urban-rural digital divide further, the analysis employed Machine Learning to identify patterns of similarities in terms of vulnerabilities across all areas, regardless of their degree of urbanization, considering the performance of the broadband infrastructure, the population distribution and the remoteness classification of all areas. The areas (belonging to group 0 in Figure 2) are characterized by low speed, high latency, low population density, remoteness, and are identified as the most vulnerable places. However, this analysis also showed that the bad performance of broadband networks is not limited to rural areas. This means that the digital divide is not merely a matter of urban-rural, but mostly a matter of cities versus non-cities: places that would not be considered as disconnected from the physical perspective (not remote areas, but towns close to cities) can still be disconnected from the broadband perspective.

Digitalization can be an opportunity only if its rollout is quick enough to enable rural businesses to remain competitive. However, it is useless without a parallel development of digital literacy and skills for residents in rural areas. Furthermore, digital connectivity is only one player in the game, and it cannot alone overturn the depopulation trends and the other vulnerabilities affecting rural areas.

Without policy support, a lack of or poor access to high-speed broadband might leave some areas behind. Access to broadband and data might help to foster new business and economic activities, especially in vulnerable areas such as rural regions. Exploiting the potential that connectivity and digitalization represent for education and training, cooperation and networking, access to services and markets, can make these areas more attractive to people and businesses.

Cohesion Policy will support the implementation of the EU’s digital agenda. In particular, European Regional and Development Fund investments will focus on digitalization of services for businesses and citizens and rollout of the high-speed broadband. The support will go where it is most needed, i.e. areas where there is a weak take-up of digital technologies or no, or very slow, or very expensive, broadband access or where there is not enough commercial potential to attract private investors.

To read more about this work, the full report is available here.

We are grateful to Patrizia Sulis for her work with our data within the European Commission’s report and guidance in composing this article. For more information, please contact Patrizia Sulis – Scientific Officer – Joint Research Centre, European Commission.

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Kathy Macdonald

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How Boingo Leverages Ookla's Comprehensive Network Intelligence

Ookla Joins Ericsson's Leading Telecommunications Open RApp System

Empowering Europe's Digital Ascent: Insights from Ookla's Gigabit Revolution Webinar

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European Commission’s Digital Decade 2030 Strategy

The European fiber network landscape

Importance of supportive regulatory framework

Succeeding in Rural Areas

Strategies for Expansion

Addressing take-up challenges

Demand Aggregation and Competition

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Sylwia Kechiche

A Reality Check on the Progress toward a Gigabit Society

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Key messages

On the road to 100 Mbps

The reality of gigabit speeds

Median download and upload disparities

Beyond median speeds

Role of AltNets

Take-up rates come with challenges

Future Initiatives and Investments

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Sylwia Kechiche

GOOOOAL: Which World Cup Finalist Scored the Fastest Internet in their Capital City?

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Mobile winners

Fastest carriers

Fixed broadband winners

Fastest providers

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Isla McKetta

EU Roaming is Free! But is it Fast?

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How much download speeds drop when you cross a border

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Isla McKetta

Touring Mobile Performance with the Speedtest Global Index

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Which countries’ mobile speeds are breaking away from the main group

Mobile performance in Tour cities

Embarquez pour le tour des performances mobiles avec le Speedtest Global Index

Performances mobiles : quels pays s’échappent du peloton ?

Performances mobiles dans les villes-étapes

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Isla McKetta

In-Depth Analysis of Changes in World Internet Performance Using the Speedtest Global Index

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World mobile speed increased 21.4% with fixed broadband up 37.4%

Shake-ups in the country rankings for internet performance

Technologies paving the way: 5G and gigabit

The presence of 5G is not enough to change a market

Gigabit is a game-changer, if you can get it

Comparing world mobile and fixed broadband at a glance

Speed Leaders

Fixed-Focused countries

Mobile-Focused countries

Speed Laggers

Regional views of mobile and fixed broadband performance

Africa mostly lags in internet speeds

Asian markets show a wide breadth of internet performance

European mobile performance is mostly strong, fixed varies

North American internet performance is sharply divided

Each country in Oceania has a very different internet story

South America mostly lags in mobile and fixed internet speeds

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Isla McKetta

Tracking COVID-19’s Impact on Global Internet Performance (Updated July 20)

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Ookla

Find Out Which 50 Top European Vacation Destinations Have the Fastest Mobile Internet Speeds

Speedtest Intelligence^Ⓡ | Q2 2023

Speedtest Intelligence^Ⓡ | Q2 2023