Isla McKetta | September 8, 2021

Despite All Odds, Global Internet Speeds Continue Impressive Increase

“A lot has changed” we wrote in our 2019 global roundup of internet speeds based on the Speedtest Global Index^™. Little did we know how much was about to change. But two things remain the same: the internet is getting faster and the Speedtest Global Index is still a fantastic resource for tracking improvements on a global and country level (if we do say so ourselves). Today we’re taking a look back at how much internet speeds have increased over the past four years and which countries have seen some of the largest gains.

Mobile download speed jumped 59.5% over the last year globally, fixed broadband up 31.9%

The global mean of download speeds improved over the last 12 months on both mobile and fixed broadband to 55.07 Mbps and 107.50 Mbps, respectively, in July 2021. Mobile saw an increase of 59.5% when comparing July 2020 to July 2021 and fixed broadband saw an increase of 31.9%, according to the Speedtest Global Index.

ookla_global-index_world-speeds_0921-1

Looking further back, mean download speed over mobile was 98.9% faster in July 2021 than in July 2019, 141.4% faster when comparing July 2021 to July 2018, and 194.0% faster when comparing July 2021 to June 2017, the month we began tracking speeds on the Speedtest Global Index. Over the last two years there were only two months when the global average for mobile download speed did not show an upward slope: February and March 2020. Speeds began increasing again in April 2020, but did not recover to pre-February levels until May 2020. This coincides with initial lockdowns due to COVID-19 in many countries.

On fixed broadband, mean download speed was 68.2% faster in July 2021 than in July 2019, 131.3% faster in July 2021 than in July 2018, and 196.1% faster in July 2021 than in June 2017. There was a similar dip in download speed over fixed broadband in March of 2020 as we saw on mobile. The speed increased again in April 2020 but did not recover to a pre-March level until April 2020.

Top 10 rankings are somewhat constant over three years, U.S. and Canada slip off in 2021

There has been surprising parity of which countries continue to occupy the top 10 spots on the Speedtest Global Index in July of each year. However, the lists for mobile and fixed broadband are radically different, with only one country (South Korea) showing up on both lists in 2021.

ookla_fastest-countries_mobile_0921

The United Arab Emirates and South Korea maintain their first and second place rankings for mobile in both 2020 and 2021 and China and Qatar merely flip-flop for third and fourth place. It’s interesting to see Australia and Canada decline in the rankings although their speeds have increased dramatically during the past three years. 5G is shifting mobile rankings where even countries with 5G (which few countries had in 2019) need a strong 5G focus to maintain their presence at the top of the list lest they be outpaced by other countries with larger investments in 5G.

ookla_fastest-countries_fixed_0921

The fixed broadband rankings are more dynamic than those on mobile. Monaco traveled up and down the top 10 from sixth place in 2019 to 10th in 2020 to first place in 2021. Singapore ranked first or second in all three years and Hong Kong (SAR) was in the top four. Romania was solidly in fifth place while South Korea dropped lower in the ranking every year. Chile and Denmark both debuted in the top 10 in 2021 and the United States dropped off the list.

Most of the top 10 countries perform well for fixed and mobile

We were curious to see if countries that made the top 10 in July 2021 for either mobile or fixed broadband were also performing well on the other medium, so we plotted the percentage difference from the global average for mobile download speed against download speed on fixed broadband. Note that the global average increased between 2020 and 2021 and that Liechtenstein and Monaco are not included in this comparison as they did not have sufficient samples to be listed on both axes.

Most countries that made the top 10 in July 2021 for either mobile or fixed broadband were performing well over the global average for both at that point in time. South Korea and the U.A.E. stood out with mean mobile download speeds that were more than 240% faster than the global average and fixed broadband downloads that were more than 70% faster than the global average. China’s mobile download speed was more than 180% faster than the global average and the country was more than 70% faster than the global average for fixed broadband. Switzerland’s mobile and fixed broadband download speeds were close to 100% faster than the global average.

Chile and Thailand are in a quadrant that shows both had faster than average fixed broadband download speeds, but their mobile download speeds were slower than the global average in July 2021. Australia, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Saudi Arabia were in the opposite quadrant with faster than average mobile speeds and below average fixed broadband speeds.

Comparing the chart for July 2021 to that of July 2020, we saw a wide variety of outcomes. Countries with increases compared to the global average on mobile and fixed broadband included Australia, Cyprus, Denmark, Hong Kong, Romania and the U.A.E. Chile and Norway showed dramatic increases compared to the global average on fixed broadband and declines on mobile. Bulgaria, China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland increased on mobile but showed little change on fixed. South Korea and Qatar increased on mobile compared to the global average and declined on fixed. Singapore and Thailand declined on both mobile and fixed broadband compared to the global average.

We’re interested to see how global speeds and rankings change over time as individual countries and their providers choose to invest in different technologies. Track your country’s performance using monthly updates on the Speedtest Global Index. Check the Ookla 5G Map^™ for up-to-date information on 5G deployments where you live, and if you want more in-depth analyses, subscribe to Ookla Research^™.

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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Isla McKetta

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Karim Yaici | October 8, 2023

Gulf ISPs should help fiber customers upgrade and configure their Wi-Fi routers to deliver faster speeds

Gulf countries improved fiber coverage and adoption by investing in fixed infrastructure, raising entry-level speeds, and making fiber services more affordable. Their efforts paid off, as evidenced by their improved position in Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index™. However, the persistent use of legacy and underperforming Wi-Fi standards in home networks can hamper efforts to provide the best network experience to customers.

Key messages

Wi-Fi 4 is still prevalent in the region which limits fiber’s potential. Many customers cannot get close to headline fixed broadband speeds because of the widespread use of Wi-Fi 4. Indeed, more than one-third of Speedtest® samples during Q2 2023 were using this old Wi-Fi standard. That means that a sizable proportion of users are not utilizing broadband services to their full potential.
Migrating to modern Wi-Fi standards can bring significant speed gains. On average, customers who used Wi-Fi 5 had a median download speed that was more than five times higher than those on Wi-Fi 4 in Q2 2023. Likewise, the speed over Wi-Fi 6 was 1.2 times faster on average than with Wi-Fi 5. Therefore, fixed broadband subscribers in the Gulf (most of whom use fiber services) with routers that only support Wi-Fi 4 would benefit the most from a CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) upgrade.
ISPs should do more to ensure their customers’ routers and smartphones are configured correctly. Even if consumers in the Gulf region own modern smartphones and Wi-Fi routers, they may still unknowingly use Wi-Fi 4 due to device misconfiguration and coverage constraints. ISPs can help educate consumers about how to correctly set up their home Wi-Fi routers and offer solutions to improve their indoor connectivity in order to use the more efficient 5 GHz spectrum band.

Most Gulf countries improved their global fixed broadband speed ranking since 2020

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region which comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. leads the Middle East in fiber coverage and adoption. Local ISPs, backed by the government, accelerated fiber roll-outs to keep pace with the demand for data services and to ensure universal access to high-speed internet as part of national broadband development strategies. According to the FTTH Council industry body, the U.A.E. topped the global rankings for fiber household coverage, reaching 98.1% in September 2022, a position it has maintained since 2016. Qatar closely followed in the second position with 97.8% coverage.

These two GCC countries ranked ahead of Singapore (96.5%), Hong Kong (91.6%), and China (89.4%). In Bahrain, meanwhile, more than 88% of households were connected to the fiber infrastructure, whereas fiber coverage exceeded 60% in Saudi Arabia and reached 52% in Oman.

According to Speedtest Intelligence®, the U.A.E. leads the Gulf region in median download speeds at 236.67 Mbps in Q2 2023, a number that doubled since Q2 2022. Bahrain saw another story of improvement, with its median download speed reaching 70.17 Mbps, an increase of 46% year-on-year since Q2 2023. ISPs also saw significant improvements in upload speeds. Fixed upload speeds increased by 61% and 40% in Oman and Qatar, respectively, reaching 29.27 Mbps and 73.21 Mbps. Users in Bahrain experienced the biggest jump in median upload speed, which doubled between Q2 2022 and Q2 2023 to 20.37 Mbps.

As a result, most Gulf countries boosted their ranking in the Ookla Speedtest Global Index™. The U.A.E was ranked second in the Speedtest Global Index™ for median download speeds over fixed broadband in June 2023. Other GCC countries improved their rankings as well but trailed the U.A.E.

The telecom regulatory regimes and policies also helped, to different degrees, stimulate competition in the market, raise minimum broadband speeds, and reduce broadband tariffs. For example, in April 2023, Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) approved an offer from BNET, the wholesale fixed infrastructure provider, to double the speed of entry-level fiber packages while maintaining the same wholesale prices. In the U.A.E., Etisalat by e& and du increased minimum download speeds to 500 Mbps and offered discounts on higher-tier fiber plans in 2022.

Wi-Fi 4 is still prevalent in the region which limits fiber’s potential

The choice of Wi-Fi standards and spectrum bands has a direct impact on connectivity quality, throughput, and network coverage. Indeed, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) significantly increases the maximum theoretical throughput speed of the access point to 3.5 Gbps, compared to 600 Mbps supported by the old Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) standard.

Wi-Fi 6/6E (802.11ax) supports even faster maximum data rates (up to 9.6 Gbps) and lower latency than earlier generations. It also combines 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz spectrum bands and wider channels for better throughput and less interference. Note that achievable speeds in real life will be much lower than these theoretical limits because of signal attenuation, interference, and the hardware and software variety of connected devices.

The rest of the analysis focuses on the most penetrated fiber markets in the region: Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. We used the percentage of samples that used a particular Wi-Fi standard and frequency band when connecting to the CPE as a proxy for their adoption by wired broadband customers in each country. We assume that most of the results reflect the performance of fiber services given that fiber represents the majority of fixed broadband connections in these four markets.

Our results show that more than one-third of test samples reported using Wi-Fi 4 to connect to the fixed CPE, but this varies considerably by country. Bahrain has the highest incidence of samples that use Wi-Fi 4 and the lowest proportion of Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 4 was more prevalent in the U.A.E. than Wi-Fi 6 (30.8% compared to 17.2% in Q2 2023). This suggests that the ISPs have an opportunity to improve the network experience for nearly a third of their customer base and extend their lead in the speed leaderboard if they can address that CPE speed bottleneck.

The distribution of samples by Wi-Fi standard is largely similar between the U.A.E and Saudi Arabia. The minimum broadband speed currently offered by ISPs in Saudi Arabia is 100 Mbps, while the median download speed on fixed broadband measured by Speedtest Intelligence data was 93.85 Mbps in Q2 2023. This suggests that many customers might still be on legacy, lower-speed plans, but the more likely case is that home Wi-Fi CPEs are limiting speeds in users’ homes. Indeed, 40.2% of Speedtest samples used Wi-Fi 4 in Saudi Arabia, limiting maximum achievable speeds.

Migrating to modern Wi-Fi standards can bring significant speed gains

Consumer-initiated speed tests confirm that users’ experience of network speed is significantly affected by how their devices connect to Wi-Fi access points. The chart below shows the median download speed distribution by Wi-Fi standard used.

Median download speeds for devices that use Wi-Fi 4 topped out at 37.18 Mbps in Bahrain, and dropped to a low of 28.47 Mbps in Saudi Arabia. Contrary to what some might think, speed improvements were far more pronounced when looking at results on Wi-Fi 4 compared to those on Wi-Fi 5, rather than comparing speeds on Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6. Users who connected to Wi-Fi 5 had a median download speed that was more than five times higher on average than those on Wi-Fi 4. While download speeds over Wi-Fi 6 were 1.2 times faster than with Wi-Fi 5.

Wi-Fi 5 users in the UAE had the largest speed lead over Wi-Fi 4 users (6.5x). With Wi-Fi 6, median download speeds more than doubled to 251.68 Mbps for users in Qatar compared to those on Wi-Fi 5. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were outliers, with speeds largely similar regardless of whether test samples were with Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6. This is because these three countries have the lowest reported median download speeds (below 100 Mbps), and many users who consider upgrading from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 are unlikely to see a difference in their home network performance.

Looking at the performance of the fastest 10% samples in Q2 2023 reveals a more significant potential speed uplift for data-heavy users when using modern Wi-Fi standards. Users in the top 10% of our results experience the best performance, so it is possible to gauge from their results what speeds are achievable with each Wi-Fi standard. To that end, the median download speed of the 10th percentile results on Wi-Fi 4 users across Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. was 71.60 Mbps, compared to 330.91 Mbps on Wi-Fi 5 and 693.48 Mbps on Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 5 was 2.7x faster than Wi-Fi 4 in Bahrain and 5.9x faster in Qatar, while the speed ratios of Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 5 ranged from 1.2 in Saudi Arabia to 1.9 in the UAE.

Given the clear performance advantages of Wi-Fi 5, ISPs should encourage customers to migrate from Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 5 because it will significantly impact the end-user network experience. It’s also important to note that our data confirms that fiber broadband subscribers who continue using Wi-Fi 4 are the most penalized, especially if they subscribe to a service that is advertised as offering hundreds of megabits per second.

The persistent usage of legacy Wi-Fi is likely due to incorrectly configured routers

Huawei and TP-Link are the top router brands reported by Gulf users utilizing Wi-Fi 4. However, their popularity can vary vastly by market depending on the equipment bundled by ISPs with their broadband offerings, as well as the ability of consumers to use third-party routers (some ISPs allow only their own routers). Our data shows that Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have the highest proportion of samples connected to a Huawei CPE. TP-Link routers are most common in Qatar and the U.A.E.

The U.A.E. has the highest proportion of routers from D-Link, Cisco, and less popular brands used with Wi-Fi 4 (nearly 64% of samples reported using ‘other’ manufacturers). This high level of market fragmentation is likely due to users replacing routers provided by their ISP or installing refurbished routers to extend coverage indoors. Such fragmentation complicates the task of ISPs to ensure that their customers use more recent routers or that they configure them correctly to use more modern Wi-Fi standards.

Our research showed that most commercial CPEs in the region introduced since 2020 likely support Wi-Fi 5 (if not Wi-Fi 6). Further, tests also showed that most Android-based smartphones that used Wi-Fi 4 were equipped with Wi-Fi 5-capable chipsets. Therefore, many users in the region are capable of using Wi-Fi 5 but are still on Wi-Fi 4. We believe that misconfigured routers could be the primary cause of such a high prevalence of legacy Wi-Fi 4 technology among Gulf countries.

ISPs can address the factors that favor Wi-Fi 4 and 2.4 GHz spectrum usage, for example, by working more closely with device manufacturers, supporting customers to acquire newer Wi-Fi routers, and correctly configuring them, as shown in the table below.

Factors that lead to Wi-Fi 4 usage and how ISPs can address them

Legacy equipment	Some fixed broadband customers are locked into long service contracts and are not eligible for router upgrades ISPs may not offer newer routers to existing customers whose contracts are automatically renewed
Solutions	Encourage existing broadband customers to upgrade to faster fiber packages to benefit from modern Wi-Fi routers Offer customers the option to replace their old Wi-Fi routers for free or for a small fee during their contract
Configuration issues	Routers may, by default, use older Wi-Fi standards or diactivate the 5 GHz band Some routers are pre-configured to use the same network name for both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, and some devices may not handle this well Some old mobile devices latch to 2.4 GHz (which is more likely used by Wi-Fi 4) on first-run but do not switch back to 5 GHz due to firmware limitations or a hardware/software setting in the router/end-user devices
Solutions	Work with OEMs to push firmware and software updates to prioritize newer Wi-Fi standards and the use of 5 Ghz over 2.4 GHz Educate customers about the importance of updating the router’s firmware and smartphone software Preconfigure the routers to have separate names for the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz bands Offer routers that can automatically select the optimal Wi-Fi channel and band to improve performance
Coverage and performance issues	Distance from CPE, physical obstruction, and interference in the crowded 2.4 GHz band
Solutions	Offer Wi-Fi extenders to improve indoor coverage Share best practices with customers on the configuration and placement of the router

Gulf-based IPSs have managed to rapidly grow their fiber footprint and migrate their customers to faster broadband services. However, a substantial portion of subscribers may not benefit from these speed increases due to the prevailing usage of Wi-Fi 4. As many ISPs in the region already offer a minimum fiber speed of 250 Mbps, they should, as a priority, migrate existing customers with legacy Wi-Fi routers to more modern models and educate customers with newer routers on how to correctly configure them. ISPs’ efforts to introduce newer CPEs will help improve the end-user experience, boost global speed rankings in the region, and ensure that their routers are more future-proof as gigabit speeds become more widespread.

About the Author

Karim Yaici

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Isla McKetta | December 10, 2018

The World’s Internet in 2018: Faster, Modernizing and Always On

When it comes to the internet, the news is mostly good for 2018. Download and upload speeds are increasing across the globe on both mobile and fixed broadband. 5G is on the horizon and gigabit service is expanding.

We looked at data from Speedtest Intelligence^TM, Ookla’s flagship data platform, from December 2017 through November 2018, to analyze everything from global internet speeds to the world’s fastest countries to when people are online. We also investigated which parts of the world are seeing the most benefit from high speed LTE on mobile and gigabit speeds on fixed broadband.

Mobile speeds increased more than 15% in 2018

Graphic-Tables-Final-v2_mobile-average-speed-3

The world’s average mobile download speed of 22.82 Mbps increased 15.2% over the past year, while mobile upload speed increased 11.6% to reach 9.19 Mbps.

Graphic-Tables-Final-v2_android-vs-ios-1

With a mean download speed of 27.84 Mbps and a mean upload of 10.61 Mbps, worldwide speeds on iOS devices were faster than those on Android (21.35 Mbps download, 8.73 Mbps upload) in 2018. This is likely due to market factors as Android devices are more popular in emerging markets where internet speeds tend to be slower.

However, download speed on Android devices increased 19.0% and upload speed increased 15.1%, more than those on iOS (18.0% increase for download and 11.1% increase for upload), which is good news for those emerging markets.

Fixed broadband speeds increased more than 26% in 2018

Graphic-Tables-Final-v2_fixed-average

On a global level, fixed broadband speeds were nearly twice as fast as those on mobile in 2018. The world’s average download speed on fixed broadband was 46.12 Mbps, 26.4% faster than last year. Upload speed increased 26.5% to 22.44 Mbps.

All said, though, both mobile and fixed broadband speeds increased at a slower rate in 2018 than they did in 2017.

Countries with the fastest internet in 2018

Graphic-Tables-Final-v2_top-5-mobile

The countries with the fastest mean download speeds over mobile in the past 12 months were: Norway (63.19 Mbps), Iceland (58.68 Mbps), Qatar (55.17 Mbps), Singapore (54.71 Mbps) and the Netherlands (53.42 Mbps).

Graphic-Tables-Final-v2_top-5-fixed

Singapore showed the world’s fastest mean download speeds over fixed broadband during the past twelve months at 175.13 Mbps. Next fastest were Iceland (153.03 Mbps), Hong Kong (138.31 Mbps), South Korea (114.67 Mbps) and Romania (109.90 Mbps).

To keep up with month-to-month internet speeds at a global level, visit the Speedtest Global Index.

Most improved countries for 2018 internet speeds

Graphic-Tables-Final-v2_most-improved-mobile

Costa Rica saw the largest increase in mobile download speed over the past year at 194.6%. Myanmar was second with 121.8%, Saudi Arabia third (113.2%), Iraq fourth (92.3%) and the Ukraine fifth (82.1%).

The countries with the largest improvements in upload speeds were Bangladesh (179.2%), the Ukraine (172.5%), Costa Rica (163.4%), Myanmar (146.9%) and Iraq (126.7%).

Graphic-Tables-Final-v2_most-improved-fixed

Paraguay saw the biggest increase in mean download speed over fixed broadband in the world over the past year at 268.6%. Guyana was second with 113.5%, Libya third (108.0%), Malaysia fourth (89.5%) and Laos fifth (76.2%).

Libya showed the most improvement in mean upload speed over fixed broadband during the past twelve months at 176.4%. Guyana was second with 116.1%, Malaysia third (95.2%), Belize fourth (88.9%) and Iraq fifth (76.8%).

4G is increasing mobile speeds

2017-2018-LTE-growth

When we looked specifically at Speedtest results on 4G, we saw that mean download speeds increased in most countries. Costa Rica was most improved for 4G download speed as was the case with overall download speed on mobile increasing 184.3% year over year. Saudi Arabia was second at 110.2% and Myanmar third at 78.0%.

Most encouragingly, we saw the number of Speedtest results over 4G increase in all but 15 countries. This could indicate that 4G availability is expanding. Tanzania saw the greatest increase with 355.0% more tests over 4G in 2018 than in 2017. Malta was second at 267.2% and Algeria third at 143.7%. We can see this expansion on the map above as 4G results fill in areas of the globe that were previously blank.

Gigabit coverage is expanding globally

gigabit-fade-1

Gigabit is in the news as ISPs across the globe expand their high-speed networks. We looked at Speedtest results on fixed broadband in excess of 750 Mbps to see which cities are benefitting most. Comparing locations with 100 or more gigabit-speed results in 2017 with those in 2018, that expansion becomes obvious. In 2017, 60 countries met our gigabit test threshold. In 2018, 16 additional countries joined our gigabit list. We’re also seeing that more cities around the world now have access to gigabit speeds.

Also exciting is that cities which already had gigabit in 2017 saw increases in the number of gigabit-speed results in 2018 as ISPs continue to build out infrastructure across cities. Many cities saw their first real gigabit expansion in 2018. For example, we saw the number of gigabit tests in New Delhi increase from 119 gigabit speed results in 2017 to 20,239 in 2018, that’s a mind-boggling 16,908% increase. Chennai, India saw a 7,481% increase (from 763 to 57,840) and Cormeilles-en-Parisis, France jumped 6,480%. Huge leaps in the number of gigabit-speed results were also seen in Gdańsk, Poland (6,338%); Rome, Italy (4,909%); Lancashire, United Kingdom (3,962%); Ota, Japan (3,240%); São Paulo, Brazil (2,947%); Hangzhou, China (2,669%) and Turda, Romania (2,636%).

When people are online

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The internet is always on, but we were surprised to see how consistently and steeply usage fell off on both mobile and fixed broadband after 9 pm local time. Normalizing the time of day for Speedtest results from around the globe, we found that usage bottoms out at 4 am and then climbs steeply again until 10 am. From there, the internet gets gradually busier until that night time drop off.

Internet in the world’s largest countries

The world’s five most populous countries are notably absent from the lists of fastest and most improved countries on mobile and fixed broadband. China, India, the U.S., Indonesia and Brazil represent about 46% of the world’s population, which makes their internet speeds worth noting nonetheless.

**Internet Speeds in the World’s Largest Countries**
Speedtest Data | December 2017-November 2018
Country	Mean Mobile Download Speed (Mbps)	% Improvement in Mobile Speed	Mean Fixed Download Speed (Mbps)	% Improvement in Fixed Speed
China	30.96	-5.8%	76.03	42.5%
India	9.11	15.2%	23.00	50.4%
United States	28.50	22.3%	92.77	37.3%
Indonesia	10.39	5.3%	14.89	18.3%
Brazil	18.65	29.3%	22.95	39.4%

Mobile internet speeds in the world’s largest countries

China had the fastest average mobile download speed among the world’s most populous countries in the past twelve months. However, China’s mobile download speed decreased during that time. The United States is fast catching up with China on mobile download speed.

Brazil occupied a middle ground for mobile download speed among the world’s most populous countries and showed the fastest rate of increase. India and Indonesia were at the bottom of this list. While the two nations show similar mobile download speeds to each other, India’s mobile download speed is improving much more quickly than Indonesia’s.

Fixed broadband speeds in the largest countries in the world

The United States showed the fastest fixed broadband download speed among the world’s most populous countries over the past year. China was second, India and Brazil nearly tie for third and Indonesia follows.

India showed the largest improvement in mean download speed over fixed broadband of the world’s five largest countries. China was second, Brazil third, the U.S. fourth and Indonesia fifth.

We’ll be back throughout 2019 to report on the state of the world’s internet as it evolves. Until then, take a Speedtest to find out how your network compares.

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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.

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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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Ookla | June 27, 2023

How Vodafone Qatar Became the World’s Fastest Mobile Network Operator in 2022 [Case Study]

When Qatar was selected to host one of the world’s largest sporting events, preparations began to ensure that the country was ready to provide reliable connectivity to the millions of incoming fans and visitors from around the world. Recognizing this event as an opportunity to invest in Qatar’s digital economy, Vodafone Qatar delivered effectively on its intent to provide seamless connectivity for their customers, developing strategic plans to rapidly scale their networks and deliver fast service throughout the country, in alignment with the support and efforts of the government of Qatar. As a result of their significant network improvements and unrivaled network performance, Vodafone Qatar was awarded the Speedtest Award for the World’s Fastest Mobile Network in 2022.

Situation

As the major sporting event brought all eyes on Qatar, Vodafone Qatar was determined to showcase their capabilities and advancements to a global audience. Along with improving their customers’ experience, the operator wanted to contribute towards Qatar’s national initiatives for digital transformation and economic development. Throughout the various stages of this rollout, Vodafone Qatar monitored progress with Ookla’s solutions for network intelligence.

Read the full case study here.

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Ookla

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Mark Giles | December 11, 2022

No Upsets in Qatar as Network Performance Peaks

Key messages

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ is the first in the Middle East region, and the first to be supported by 5G networks.
It would not have been a surprise to see network performance degrade during the tournament, with over 2.45 million cumulative stadium attendees in a country with a population of just 2.93 million. However, median mobile network download speeds increased substantially in November to reach 263.37 Mbps (based on modern chipsets), up from 190.93 Mbps in October.
Ooredoo and Vodafone’s network investment has helped maintain a consistent user experience for fans, with median internet page load times and video streaming start times well below 2 seconds for 5G users.

The first FIFA World Cup® supported by 5G networks

Awarded in December 2010 to Qatar, this year’s FIFA World Cup is the first to take place in the Middle East, and the first to be supported by commercial 5G networks. Ahead of the event, we outlined the important role of the Qatar Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) and both Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar in driving performance gains in the market. A competitive, pro-investment market environment has paid dividends, coupled with firm commitments from both operators to roll out commercial 5G networks in all densely populated areas and all venues associated with the FIFA World Cup.

As of December 3, 2022, after almost two weeks and 48 games, the FIFA World Cup has seen over 2.45 million cumulative stadium attendees. For a country with a population of 2.93 million, ensuring mobile network performance meets expectations has been no easy feat. Ookla® was keen to understand how Qatari mobile networks were handling the deluge of visitors and additional traffic. According to Speedtest Intelligence®, median download performance in November rose to 263.37 Mbps on modern chipsets across all mobile technologies combined, with median 5G download performance hitting 472.13 Mbps.

Fans visiting Qatar for the World Cup™ have benefitted from the offer of local SIMs from national mobile operators Ooredoo and Vodafone, which include free data. Ooredoo SIMs include 2022 MB of data for free, valid for 3 days, while Vodafone customers have access to 3GB of data for free, valid across 2 days. Encouraging visitors to utilize local SIMs has helped provide superior network performance for fans at the World Cup. In addition, it’s clear that the network enhancements made by Ooredoo and Vodafone, and their live monitoring and optimization of network performance using crowdsourced data, has helped boost overall network performance at the event, despite the deluge of fans and resultant data traffic.

Qatar’s mobile networks driving increased speeds despite the deluge of fans

We used Speedtest Intelligence data to observe performance in the lead up to, and during the FIFA World Cup™. 5G performance increased from a median download of 394.2 Mbps and upload of 19.93 Mbps 10 weeks before the event, while hitting a median download speed of 489.29 Mbps and median upload speed of 38.36 Mbps during the second week of the World Cup™. Ooredoo and Vodafone have played a crucial role in driving increased 5G performance at the World Cup with both mobile network operators neck-and-neck in terms of 5G download performance.

Comparing mobile network performance during the first two weeks of the FIFA World Cup™ to that of other major sporting events in the region and further afield shows just how impressive 5G network performance has been so far, given the number of attendees. While not the fastest sporting event on record, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ ranks highly, well ahead of events such as the French Open and Wimbledon.

Network improvements ensuring consistent quality of experience for World Cup™ fans

Ooredoo, FIFA’s Official Global Connectivity Services Provider for the event, has been very vocal on the improvements it has made to its network and operations. Ooredoo has rolled out additional macro cell sites and small cells to cater to data traffic around the stadiums, and has also deployed over 5,000 cell sites to offer sufficient network coverage across mobile technologies within the stadiums.

Using Speedtest Intelligence data to analyze network performance across Qatar’s World Cup™ stadiums for both Ooredoo and Vodafone combined, we see that Al Janoub Stadium recorded the fastest median 5G download performance at 757.77 Mbps, and that all World Cup™ stadiums recorded median 5G speeds over 400 Mbps. Of the most popular fan sites, the Ras Bufontas and Airport Free Zone recorded the highest 5G performance.

Ooredoo has also implemented a full modernisation of its core network, moving to a cloud-based architecture, while also making improvements to the capacity of its national and international IP transport links to ensure sufficient capacity for fans to better access servers for popular OTT services such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. These network improvements are helping to drive improved customer experience, as reflected in page load times for mobile users at the World Cup™ accessing Facebook, with median page load times for the social network of well under 2 seconds on 4G networks, and below 1.5 seconds with 5G. Video streaming start times, which were 2.3 seconds on 4G networks, improve to 1.7 seconds on 5G networks.

We’ll continue to examine network performance at the FIFA World Cup™, as it moves towards the final game on December 18.

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Mark Giles

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Mark Giles | August 21, 2022

Qatar – Stronger Competition Driving 5G Performance Gains Ahead of World Cup

Key messages

Vodafone’s resurgence is putting pressure on market leader Ooredoo to maintain its performance lead. Vodafone’s Turnaround Strategy has created a more level competitive playing field in Qatar, helping it increase its market share and drive strong growth in top-line revenues and net profit so far this year. Vodafone’s improving performance in median 5G network speeds is driving Ooredoo to react in order to maintain its lead.
Strong 5G network investment in Qatar, as both operators seek to gain the upper hand, with all eyes on the up-coming FIFA World Cup^™. This major event gives both operators a chance to demonstrate the capabilities and resilience of their 5G networks to a global audience. They have already driven median 5G download speeds in the market to over 400 Mbps so far in 2022, and with mmWave spectrum due to be allocated in 2023, consumers should expect faster performance to come.
Perfect storm has helped propel Qatar to second place globally in mobile download speeds. A desire to rapidly transition their customer bases to 5G has boosted 5G Availability in the market, and has helped Qatar climb to second place in Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index^™ as of July 2022.
Beyond faster speeds, consumers are paying less and have access to unlimited 5G tariffs. While headline median 5G speeds impress, strong competition is also driving improved outcomes for consumers, as ARPU falls quarter-on-quarter. Both operators have also introduced unlimited 5G tariffs, including voice, SMS and data, albeit with fair usage caps.

Vodafone’s resurgence has forced Ooredoo to respond and helped drive network speeds to new highs

Vodafone Qatar’s resurgence as a stronger competitor to market leader Ooredoo Qatar has taken place at a key juncture for the Qatari market — the arrival of 5G. Qatar’s Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) amended the mobile licenses held by Vodafone Qatar and Ooredoo Qatar in early 2019. The new licenses included harmonized terms and conditions for both companies, authorizing each to utilize 100 MHz of C-band spectrum and committed them to roll out commercial 5G networks before the end of 2020 in all densely populated areas. It also required they provide coverage of all primary roads and highways as well as all venues associated with the up-coming FIFA World Cup. This was updated in May 2022 to plan the allocation to both operators of additional spectrum in the C-band as well as high frequency (26 GHz) spectrum by 2023, while their license obligations require their 5G networks to cover 99% of Qatar with minimum download speeds of 100 Mbps by 2024.

Both network operators have invested heavily in their 5G networks, with Ooredoo attaining 99.5% population coverage in Q1 2022, and Vodafone committed to near universal coverage by the end of 2022. This drive to increase coverage and rapidly migrate users to 5G means that Qatar is among the top markets globally in terms of 5G Availability, (the percentage of users with 5G-capable devices who spend a majority of their time connected to 5G networks), which stood at 46.8% as of Q2 2022 according to Speedtest Intelligence^®. Ooredoo maintained an advantage over Vodafone in median 5G download speeds in Q2 2022, recording 450.08 Mbps compared to Vodafone’s 426.04 Mbps, while Vodafone maintains an advantage in upload speeds of 28.61 Mbps to Ooredoo’s 26.76 Mbps.

Ookla^® Speedtest Intelligence data shows that Vodafone’s renewed position within the market is helping spur network investment from both operators. In early 2021, Ooredoo had the upper hand in terms of 5G download performance, while in Q4 2021 Vodafone’s performance jumped considerably, prompting Ooredoo to strengthen its position in Q1 2022. Monthly Speedtest^® data shows that the performance gap between the two operators is beginning to narrow once more. At a national level, this has helped Qatar maintain a top-five position in Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index (a global ranking of median download speeds based on all mobile technologies), and as of July 2022 it ranked second globally.

Vodafone targeting market share gains, helping drive ARPU in the market lower

Qatar has been a challenging market for Vodafone Group. Vodafone Qatar launched in 2009 as the second mobile network operator in the country. While it was able to grow market share, it consistently made losses — in the nine months to December 2017, the company made a loss of QAR 182.16 million (~$50 million), which led to Vodafone Group selling its share in the operator in 2018. The Qatar Foundation took control of the company, having increased its shareholding to 50%, maintaining the Vodafone brand but also implementing a Turnaround Strategy, designed to reverse the company’s fortunes, with a focus on cost containment and revenue growth.

Vodafone Qatar’s operational and financial performance has gone from strength to strength over the five years since then. Costs have fallen from close to 75% of revenues in 2017, to under 60% during 1H 2022, spurred by a rigid focus on cost containment. During the first half of 2022, Vodafone Qatar grew top line revenues by 23.5% (year-on-year, with service revenues increasing by 14%), while net profit rose by 61.3%.

The company is reaping the benefits of an aggressive move to capture new customers — in Q1 2022 its mobile connections base topped 2 million for the first time, representing 18.6% growth year-on-year, well above Ooredoo’s 6.8% growth. Vodafone was the first to introduce “unlimited” tariffs to the market in 2019 across voice, SMS, and data (subject to a fair usage policy), while it has also allowed users across all its tariffs to access 5G. Vodafone’s 5G Availability, the proportion of its users with 5G capable devices which spend a majority of time connected to 5G networks, hit 53.0% during Q2 2022, ahead of Ooredoo’s 42.0%. Vodafone’s drive to acquire new customers has come at the expense of average revenue per user (ARPU), as it is clear it is undercutting Ooredoo in the market. Vodafone’s ARPU fell by 10.3% in the year to Q1 2022, while Ooredoo’s only declined by 3.9%, despite being almost 40% higher.

Focus currently on FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, but more to come

A large part of 5G network investment in the country is targeted at the upcoming FIFA World Cup, scheduled to take place in November and December 2022. The award of the world’s premier global football tournament was a significant coup for Qatar, and is predicted to attract around 1.5 million visitors, a significant increase on the local population of 2.93 million. In addition to covering all fan zones related to the event, both operators have been investing heavily in increasing the capacity of their networks and in building enhanced network assurance capabilities, to make sure their networks can cope with the strain of the additional connections and traffic from the event.

Ooredoo announced in March that it had been selected by the FIFA World Cup organizers as the Official Global Connectivity Services Provider. This will involve providing connectivity services to all media rights licensees in Qatar, and it is building a dedicated network to support broadcast video production and distribution. In order to further boost its network capacity for users at the event, Ooredoo signed a partnership agreement with Ericsson in November 2021, where the vendor will provide network optimization and event management services, covering 5G services in fan zones, stadiums, airports, and major tourist attractions. While not an official partner, Vodafone Qatar’s role in delivering a successful event should not be overlooked. It has tapped the experience of the wider Vodafone Group in delivering connectivity at major events, has been aggressively densifying its 5G network (with over 50% more radio access network sites deployed since 2017), and has also been expanding the reach of its GigaNet fiber network.

The failure to allocate mmWave spectrum in time for the World Cup has disappointed, however this will now take place in 2023, and consumers should expect further 5G performance gains once both operators begin deployment. We will continue to look at performance on both operator’s networks as we draw closer to the World Cup, and at how they handle the deluge of visitors and traffic that it will bring. To stay abreast of Ookla’s latest content, you can subscribe to our updates here.

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Mark Giles

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Isla McKetta | April 19, 2021

Saudi 5G Is Fast, and New Spectrum Allocations Should Make it Faster

Saudi Arabia has a new plan to allocate or improve 23 GHz of spectrum to boost 5G speeds and coverage and potentially best other countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), This region has been ahead of the 5G curve since early days with Qatar launching commercially available 5G in 2018 and Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates following soon after in 2019.

It’s good company to be in, but having such technologically advanced neighbors can obscure the progress Saudi Arabia has made and how well the country is doing compared with the world. This article looks at mobile speeds and 5G adoption in GCC countries and then closely examines Saudi mobile performance, including information on fastest providers, time spent on 5G and how the new spectrum could improve performance.

UAE has fastest mobile speeds in GCC, Saudi Arabia third

ookla_median-mobile-speeds_gcc_0421_en
There was a wide range of median mobile speeds across the GCC over the past year, despite 5G presence in nearly all of the countries. United Arab Emirates (UAE) consistently had the fastest median download speed over mobile, with 100.99 Mbps during Q1 2021. Qatar was second with 90.92 Mbps during Q1 2021 and Saudi Arabia was third (67.61 Mbps). Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain formed a tight group at the bottom of the rankings with median download speeds of 42.52 Mbps, 37.52 Mbps and 36.76 Mbps, respectively, during Q1 2021. Of these countries, only Oman did not have commercially-available 5G until 2021.

Kuwait showed the largest increase in median download speed among GCC countries when comparing Q1 2020 to Q1 2021 at 84.0%. UAE saw the second largest increase (61.6%), Saudi Arabia third (48.2%), Qatar fourth (53.2%), Bahrain fifth (43.8%) and Oman sixth (21.6%).

Median upload speeds over mobile were much slower than download speeds in all GCC countries during 2020, as is often the case. UAE had the fastest upload speed during Q1 2021 at 23.62 Mbps. Qatar was second (21.96 Mbps), Saudi Arabia third (17.06 Mbps), Kuwait fourth (16.22 Mbps), Oman fifth (12.75 Mbps) and Bahrain sixth (10.17 Mbps).

5G adoption is highest in Saudi Arabia

The ratio of samples from devices that are connected to 5G to the number of samples from all 5G-capable devices speaks to the maturity of the 5G market in each country. Saudi Arabia had the highest ratio among GCC countries during Q1 2021. Qatar was second and UAE third, Kuwait fourth and Bahrain fifth. Oman, which only launched commercially-available 5G during Q1 2021, was a distant sixth.
ookla_5g-device-ratio_gcc_0421_en

Qatar had the highest 5G Availability

ookla_gcc_5g_availability_map_0421_en

One way to understand the state of a 5G network is by looking at 5G Availability — the proportion of users spending the majority of their time on 5G. Mobile users with 5G-capable devices in Qatar had the highest 5G Availability among GCC countries with 38.1% during Q1 2021. Saudi Arabia was second (31.9%), Kuwait third (31.8%), UAE fourth (30.5%) and Bahrain fifth (17.3%). 5G Availability in Oman, where 5G was not commercially available until Q1 2021, was 3.0%.

5G in Saudi Arabia is much faster than global average

ookla_5g-download-speed_saudi-arabia_world_0421_en

We compared Saudi Arabia’s median download speed over 5G with an average of 5G download speeds around the world during Q1 2021 and found that Saudi Arabia’s 5G is 127% faster at 322.42 Mbps.

stc was the fastest operator in Saudi Arabia, Mobily had highest rating and NPS

Speedtest Consumer Sentiment™ data provides rich insights into customer satisfaction over time, as well as competitive benchmarking, by providing data on both customers’ overall satisfaction with their network providers (based on a five-star scale) and Net Promoter Score (NPS). This data set is gathered from single-question surveys presented to users at the end of a Speedtest. Operators and government regulators across the globe use this data to monitor improvements over time. A comparison of Q1 2021 ratings data from Saudi Arabia’s top providers to their speeds during the same period, we can explore the relationship between customer satisfaction and network performance.

ookla_median-mobile-speeds_saudi-arabia_0421_en

There was a wide spread among download speeds for Saudi Arabian mobile operators during Q1 2021 with stc showing the fastest median download and upload speeds at 76.81 Mbps and 19.71 Mbps, respectively. Mobily was second for download and upload speeds (62.36 Mbps and 13.29 Mbps, respectively) and Zain third (39.62 Mbps and 11.29 Mbps, respectively).

Mobily had the highest rating and the highest NPS among top providers in Saudi Arabia in Q1 2021. Substantively, there was not enough difference between the ratings of stc and Zain to determine a second and third ranking. stc was second for NPS and Zain third. It’s worth noting that the NPS was negative for all three operators, indicating that users were not likely on average to recommend the service to friends or family.

How Saudi Arabia will use additional spectrum to maximize performance

On March 30, Saudi Arabia’s Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) released the 3-year “Outlook for Commercial and Innovative Use of the Spectrum in Saudi Arabia.” The program includes a plan to make more than 23 GHz of spectrum available for innovative and commercial use: 4 GHz licensed, 6.2 GHz unlicensed and more than 13 GHz of lightly licensed spectrum. This balanced approach should maintain protection of key uses in their primary bands while supporting a range of technologies, including: mobile, satellite — including non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO), high altitude platform station (HAPS), air to ground and Wi-Fi/WiGig.

CITC will allocate the 600 MHz and 3800 – 4000 MHz bands for mobile use in 2021. The sub-1 GHz should help Saudi operators maximize the distance their 5G signals can travel as T-Mobile has done in the U.S.. This is important in a country with vast areas to span between major cities.

Meanwhile, the addition of the 3800 – 4000 MHz band to the already provided 3400-3800 MHz in the C-band should enable operators to add massive capacity to their networks and leverage the fully market-tested network infrastructure as well as a plethora of 5G capable devices. Specifically, with the recent mobile chipsets capable of FDD+TDD NR Carrier Aggregation, these provide a stepping stone and a smooth transition to standalone 5G, and allow operators to deploy an ideal mix of 5G coverage and capacity.

Saudi Arabia and the GCC as a whole are interesting markets to watch and we’ll continue using data from Speedtest Intelligence® to see if Saudi performance continues to improve and how the rankings shift as Oman ramps up their 5G program. For sneak peeks at how countries around the world are performing on a monthly basis, visit the Speedtest Global Index^™.

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Isla McKetta

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Isla McKetta | December 10, 2020

Massive Expansions and Huge Improvements in Speed: The Worldwide Growth of 5G in 2020

The rapid expansion of 5G in countries across the globe was a bright spot in a year that needed one. But just how great is the news? We examined Speedtest Intelligence® data from over 60.5 million Speedtest® results during Q3 2020 to see how much speeds have improved, where download speeds are the fastest at the country and capital level, where 5G deployments have increased and what worldwide 5G coverage looks like now. We also looked at countries where 5G doesn’t yet reach to understand where good news might be on the horizon.

We have only included countries with commercially available 5G on these lists in order to provide a more accurate view of the performance consumers can reasonably expect. While our data shows results for many countries where 5G is not yet commercially available, these tests are likely results from engineers testing their own networks. In addition, we’re only providing analysis for countries with more than 200 samples during Q3 2020. The bars shown in our charts are 95% confidence intervals, which represent the range of values in which the true value is likely to be. Countries marked in tables with an asterisk first launched 5G commercially in 2020.

5G downloads were 954% faster than 4G at the global level

The worldwide median download speed over 5G was 954% faster than that over 4G during Q3 2020. Median upload speed over 5G was 311% faster than that over 4G. Consumers are eagerly adopting the new technology and many have wanted to measure the full throughput capacity of their network connection. In Q3 2020 alone, there were 4,324,788 Speedtest results over 5G.
Median-Speeds-Worldwide_1220-1

United Arab Emirates had the fastest 5G

United Arab Emirates topped the list of countries with the fastest top 10% 5G download speed in Q3 2020. Top 10% (or 90th percentile) measures the speeds seen by the fastest 10% of users and is a way to gauge what each country’s networks are capable of. Saudi Arabia was second for top 10% 5G download speed, Norway third, Spain fourth and Japan fifth.
Fastest-Countries-Top-5G-Download-Speed_1220-2

Another way to measure 5G performance is to look at median 5G download speed, which is a better predictor of the kind of performance most 5G customers can expect. Norway was the country with the fastest median download speed over 5G during Q3 2020. U.A.E. was second in this category, South Africa third, Saudi Arabia fourth and Spain fifth.
Fastest-Countries-Median-5G-Download-Speed_1220-2

It’s notable that Japan was on the list of 10 countries with the fastest top 10% 5G download speed but not on the list of 10 countries with the fastest median download speed over 5G. No matter how fast a country’s mobile infrastructure is, many other factors go into median 5G speeds, including device adoption and spectrum allocation.

Abu Dhabi tops list of 5G speeds in world capitals

Our examination of 5G performance for 18 world capital cities with 5G during Q3 2020 found that Abu Dhabi had the fastest median download speed over 5G at 546.81 Mbps. Riyadh was second, Madrid third, Seoul fourth and Kuwait City fifth. As we saw at the country level, median upload speed was much lower than download speed.
Median-5G-Performance-Capitals_1220-2

How 5G performance and time spent compare within regions

We looked more closely at 5G performance across several intergovernmental organizations and trade blocs to get a better sense of how countries are performing in comparison to their neighbors and trade partners. We also calculated Time Spent on 5G, the proportion of time that users with 5G-capable devices spent on 5G, for each country.

Italy had the fastest 5G among G7 countries, U.S. the slowest

Italy had the fastest median download speed over 5G of all the G7 countries. Japan was second, Canada third, the U.K. fourth and Germany fifth. The U.S. had the highest Time Spent on 5G, followed by Canada. For a deeper analysis of 5G in the U.K., read our previous coverage. Because France launched commercially available 5G only within the last couple of weeks, we have not included it on this table.
5G-Performance-G7-Countries_1220

South Africa was the only country in the African Union with sufficient 5G to rate

As we saw above, South Africa’s impressive median download speed over 5G ranked the country third in the world during Q3 2020. South Africa was only one of two countries in the African Union to have commercially available 5G during Q3 2020. The other, Madagascar, did not have sufficient samples to properly analyze. Time Spent on 5G in South Africa was very low, an indication that 5G is not yet widely available there.
5G-Performance-Africa_1220

South Korea had the fastest 5G in APEC countries, U.S. the slowest

A median download speed over 5G of 411.11 Mbps put South Korea comfortably at the top of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries with the fastest 5G during Q3 2020. Thailand was second, Australia third, China fourth and Taiwan fifth. 5G speeds represented the largest improvement over 4G in the Philippines where the median download speed over 4G during Q3 2020 (9.36 Mbps) was substantially lower than that of other countries on this list.

South Korea and the U.S. tied for highest Time Spent on 5G among APEC countries during Q3 2020, followed by Hong Kong and Taiwan.
5G-Performance-APEC_1220

Spain had the fastest 5G in the E.U., Poland the slowest

Spain showed the fastest median download speed over 5G among the 11 European Union (E.U.) countries with sufficient 5G samples to rank during Q3 2020. Hungary was second, Finland third, Romania fourth and Ireland fifth. Spain’s median download speed over 5G also represented the largest gain over 4G among all of these countries, partially because Spain had the second slowest median download speed over 4G. France is not included on this list because 5G did not become commercially available in the country until after Q3 2020.

The Netherlands had the highest Time Spent on 5G among E.U. countries during Q3 2020, indicating that customers with 5G phones are able to spend far more time on 5G there than in other E.U. countries. Denmark was second for Time Spent on 5G among EU countries in Q3 2020 and Finland third.
5G-Performance-EU_1220

U.A.E had the fastest 5G in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

With the second fastest median download speed over 5G in the world, U.A.E. was also the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country with the fastest 5G during Q3 2020. Saudi Arabia was second and Qatar third. While Oman does have commercially available 5G, there were insufficient samples in the country during Q3 2020 to properly analyze performance.

5G represented the largest improvement over 4G in Kuwait and Bahrain, countries that had slower median download speeds over 4G than their neighbors.

Time Spent on 5G was relatively high in all the GCC countries on this list, except Bahrain, when compared to other countries in the world during Q3 2020. Qatar showed the highest Time Spent on 5G among GCC countries in Q3 2020 at 16.0%. U.A.E. was second and Saudi Arabia third.
5G-Performance-GCC_1220

Brazil was the only MERCOSUR country with sufficient 5G to rate

Brazil’s median download speed over 5G of 84.60 Mbps during Q3 2020 may not seem fast for 5G, but it still puts Brazil well ahead of other countries in the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), most of which do not yet have 5G at all. We did see 5G results in Colombia, but there were insufficient samples to properly compare.

Time Spent on 5G in Brazil during Q3 2020 was not quite one percent, indicating that customers do not have much access to 5G yet.
5G-Performance-MERCOSUR_1220

The U.S., Europe and Asia see widespread 5G coverage

Data from Cell Analytics™ shows a global view of 5G coverage in Q3 2020. This map, based on 5G connectivity data for opted-in Speedtest users, shows that 5G is spreading rapidly across the U.S., Europe, the Arabian Peninsula and Asia. In other regions, 5G is primarily available in larger cities, if at all.
Global-5G-Coverage_1220

99 countries worldwide had 5G, in 14,643 total cities

The number of countries with 5G deployments increased 62.3% between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020, with 99 countries having 5G deployments at the end of Q3 2020, according to the Ookla 5G Map™. There were 14,643 cities worldwide with 5G deployments at the end of Q3 2020, a 1,671% increase over Q3 2019. The total number of deployments worldwide was 17,046. The counts here and throughout this section include commercially available 5G as well as 5G networks with limited availability and those in pre-release.

Countries with the Most 5G Cities

Ookla 5G Map™ | Q3 2020

Country	Numbers of Cities with 5G
United States	7,583
Germany	2,312
Austria	1,104
Netherlands*	1,009
Switzerland	554
Thailand*	325
Ireland	214
Puerto Rico	187
United Kingdom	169
Kuwait	97

The U.S. had the most cities with 5G deployments at the end of Q3 2020 with 7,583. Germany was second, Austria third, the Netherlands fourth and Switzerland fifth. A deployment is when a provider has some level of 5G presence in a city. A city can have multiple deployments when more than one provider is present.

Countries with the Largest Growth in Number of Deployments

Ookla 5G Map™ | Q3 2020

Country	5G Deployments as of Q3 2020	% Change Q3 2020 vs Q3 2019
Netherlands*	1,071	50,350%
Thailand*	451	32,401%
United States	7,808	21,566%
Germany	2,417	11,460%
Canada*	93	7,600%
Austria	1,173	4,918%
Ireland	236	4,180%
Poland	81	3,150%
Japan*	75	2,050%
Oman	50	2,000%

The Netherlands showed the largest percentage change in the number of 5G deployments between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020 with a 50,350% jump from two deployments in Q3 2019 to 1,071 in Q3 2020. Thailand saw the second largest percentage increase, the U.S. third, Germany fourth and Canada fifth.

Most early trials and commercial deployments of 5G spectrum allocations around the world have been centered around fallow swaths of the mid-band (3.3 GHz – 4.2 GHz) spectrum. With the recent commercialization of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) across all major 5G infrastructure vendors, there is now increasing demand for 5G support on many existing 4G frequencies, ranging from 600 MHz to 2.5 GHz. In unique 5G markets like Japan, there is an additional need for the 4.5 GHz band as well as the millimeter wave (FR2).

In the United States, early deployments leveraged millimeter wave frequency bands in the 28 GHz and the 39 GHz, which delivered impressive speeds in a very constrained footprint. The rapid 5G deployment in the 600 MHz band has added a substantial nationwide 5G footprint — and with that, much wider 5G availability for many more Americans. With the recent merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, the deployment of 2.5 GHz spectrum has been significantly accelerated, which should improve both network efficiency and user experience on T-Mobile’s network. Additionally, next year’s availability of 5G Carrier Aggregation will allow T-Mobile to combine 600 MHz with 2.5 GHz to deliver improved 5G speeds on top of the existing nationwide footprint. In addition, DSS has recently been deployed by AT&T and Verizon, which allows operators to choose from existing low-band spectrum assets (850 MHz) and deliver both LTE and 5G at the same time. This feature alone doesn’t add a significant boost in perceived user experience, but will certainly improve the 5G footprint.

China showed the highest percentage of 5G test samples

Another way to measure 5G adoption is to look at the proportion of samples taken over 5G relative to the total number of samples on all technologies. Speedtest Intelligence is uniquely positioned to measure global growth in 5G because of the worldwide adoption of Speedtest apps. China had the highest percentage of 5G Speedtest results compared to other mobile technology types in Q3 2020 at 18.9%. South Korea was second, Hong Kong third, Puerto Rico fourth and Qatar fifth.

Countries with the Most 5G

Speedtest Intelligence^® | Q3 2020

Country	5G Samples as a % of Total
China	18.9%
South Korea	15.8%
Hong Kong (S.A.R.)*	7.9%
Puerto Rico	6.7%
Qatar	5.7%
United States	5.5%
Netherlands*	4.9%
United Arab Emirates	4.6%
Kuwait	4.6%
Australia	4.2%

What 5G will look like in 2021

With recently announced device chipset advancements expected in 2021, including 5G Carrier Aggregation, operators will be able to combine two 5G frequency bands in the sub-6GHz (FR1) range, allowing not only faster speeds, but also greater coverage. More importantly, the ability to combine Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) and Time Division Duplexing (TDD) FR1 channels will enable operators to leverage low-band frequencies (sub-1GHz) for uplink transmissions (user device to cell site), while combining the low-band with the mid-band (2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz) on the downlink. This should significantly expand the availability of fast 5G download speeds across larger geographies.

Similarly, DSS — which is a stepping stone to standalone 5G and allows for the simultaneous delivery of 4G and 5G technology on the same spectrum slice — will enable operators to combine already-deployed FDD spectrum with dedicated mid-band spectrum for an enhanced standalone 5G experience. This will unlock the full potential of 5G networks, such as ultra low latency and network slicing, while delivering an improved mobile experience to users.

Where 5G fails to reach

During Q3 2020 Speedtest Intelligence showed 55 countries in the world (with more than 200 samples) where more than 20% of samples were from 2G and 3G connections (combined). These are countries where, in many cases, 5G is still aspirational. As excited as we are about the expansion of 5G, we do not want to see these countries left behind.

Countries That Still Rely Heavily on 2G and 3G Connections

Speedtest Intelligence^® | Q3 2020

Country	2G & 3G Samples	4G Samples
Turkmenistan	74.9%	25.1%
Rwanda	52.3%	47.7%
Iraq	49.4%	50.6%
Belarus	46.5%	53.5%
Afghanistan	46.0%	54.0%
Antigua and Barbuda	40.2%	59.8%
Tajikistan	40.2%	59.8%
Suriname	39.7%	60.3%
Haiti	37.7%	62.3%
Syria	37.5%	62.5%
Ghana	36.0%	64.0%
Ethiopia	35.0%	65.0%
Mozambique	34.7%	65.3%
Benin	34.3%	65.7%
Angola	34.1%	65.9%
El Salvador	32.5%	67.5%
Moldova	31.8%	68.2%
Venezuela	30.3%	69.7%
Tanzania	30.0%	70.0%
Papua New Guinea	29.5%	70.5%
Jamaica	29.4%	70.6%
Sudan	29.2%	70.8%
Algeria	29.0%	71.0%
Namibia	28.5%	71.5%
Zimbabwe	28.5%	71.5%
Somalia	28.4%	71.6%
Nicaragua	28.1%	71.9%
Armenia	28.1%	71.9%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	28.1%	71.9%
Uzbekistan	27.8%	72.2%
Cameroon	27.5%	72.5%
Zambia	27.4%	72.6%
Uganda	26.6%	73.4%
Trinidad and Tobago	26.6%	73.4%
Honduras	26.5%	73.5%
Bangladesh	26.3%	73.7%
Burkina Faso	26.0%	74.0%
Ukraine	25.8%	74.2%
Nigeria	25.7%	74.3%
DR Congo	24.6%	75.4%
Costa Rica	24.3%	75.7%
Botswana	24.1%	75.9%
Libya	22.9%	77.1%
Azerbaijan	22.9%	77.1%
Ecuador	22.8%	77.2%
Mali	22.4%	77.6%
Mongolia	21.8%	78.2%
Maldives	21.6%	78.4%
Mauritius	21.3%	78.7%
Tunisia	21.0%	79.0%
Belize	20.7%	79.3%
Laos	20.5%	79.5%
Kenya	20.3%	79.7%
Paraguay	20.1%	79.9%
Côte d’Ivoire	20.0%	80.0%

In markets where 4G layers haven’t been deployed or substantially covered, end users fall back to the circuit-switched network (2G, 3G). These decades-old network technologies should be sufficient for basic voice and texting, social media, and navigation apps, but cannot deliver rich media experiences or video calling. Unfortunately, many countries on this list are places where consumers rely primarily on mobile phones for their internet connectivity.

5G is radically changing the speeds and capabilities of mobile networks around the world. If the current growth rate continues, it won’t be long before most nations have access to 5G. But there are nations and subsets of subscribers who may not see the benefits of 5G for years to come. We will continue reporting on 5G achievements across the globe and watching speeds in general on the Speedtest Global Index™.

About the Author

Isla McKetta

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Speedtest Intelligence^® | Q3 2020

Speedtest Intelligence^® | Q3 2020