Internet speeds continue to grow across the world despite disruptions, said Ookla, which runs internet speed measurement tool Speedtest. In its recent Speedtest 2021 Global Index, the industry watcher stated that mobile download speed jumped 59.5 per cent over the last year globally, while the same for fixed broadband increased 31.9 per cent.
Mean download speed over mobile got 98.9 per cent faster in July 2021 than in July 2019, 141.4 per cent faster when comparing to July 2018, and 194 per cent faster when comparing to June 2017, the month Ookla began tracking speeds on the Speedtest Global Index.
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Meanwhile, fixed line download speed in July 2021 was 68.2 per cent faster than in July 2019, 131.3 per cent faster than in July 2018, and 196.1 per cent faster than in June 2017.
“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," Ookla said.
“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," it added.
United Arab Emirates continued to lead the top ten countries in terms of mobile internet speeds during July. It was followed by South Korea, Qatar, China, Cyprus, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Australia and Bulgaria.
The average mobile download speed around the world stood at 56.74 Mbps, while upload speeds were 12.61 Mbps. Globally, latency in mobile internet came down from 42 ms to 37 ms.
Meanwhile, India stood at 122nd rank, with 17.77 Mbps mobile download speed, 5.09 Mbps mobile upload speed and 47 ms latency.
“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," Okla noted.
Coming to fixed line internet, Monaco registered a huge nine-rank jump in July to end at the top of ten countries with fastest broadband speeds. Singapore lost the pole position and ended on the second spot. Hong Kong, Thailand, Romania, Switzerland, South Korea, Chile, Denmark and Liechtenstein occupied the following spots.
The biggest upset was South Korea, which fell to the seventh spot from fourth. It had the second fastest fixed internet speed in 2019.
India held the 68th rank in terms of fastest fixed line internet with 60.06 Mbps download speed and 56.47 Mbps upload speed.
