Industry Updates

The UK has the highest mobile broadband speed according to a recent report by Akamai who conducted research on the world’s broadband speed for this year’s first quarter. With the average of 20.4 Mbps, the country is noted to offer higher 3G and 4G speeds than any country in the world.

The said news is part of Akamai’s State of the Internet report, a research which is done quarterly to determine the internet connection worldwide. Part of their findings in UK’s mobile broadband shows that 95 percent of its mobile connection exceeds 4Mbps. This speed is twice faster than what the local government stipulated as the basic fixed broadband speed.

Second to the UK’s position was Denmark with a near 10Mbps average broadband speed. On third and fourth place were Puerto Rico and Sweden with speeds of 9.6Mbps and 9.8Mbps respectively. South Korea ranks fifth with a speed of 8.8Mbps, despite having the most advanced mobile network in the world.

Although it ranked top as the country with the highest average broadband speed, the report showed the UK failed to have the top average peak connection speed. Topping this said chart is Australia with a peak connection speed of 149.3 Mbps.

Next to Australia in having high peak connection speed is Japan with 126Mbps. Singapore and Thailand came third and fourth with peak connection speed at 116.4Mbps and 105.4Mbps respectively.

The UK stands as the country with the highest average mobile broadband speed coincides with Ofcom’s customer satisfaction survey which was conducted last December 2014. In this report, it shows the UK to have an overall mobile broadband customer satisfaction level of 73 percent.

More people in the UK are opting for 4G for their mobile broadband connection. Because of the demand, the country’s broadband providers are competing to attract more customers. Some of the broadband operators who are trying to attract more 4G applicants are Vodafone and EE, with the latter having the biggest 4G network across Europe with its 10 million 4G customers.

The State of the Internet report editor, David Belson, shared how their team saw a positive result in the first quarter’s broadband metrics. “While connectivity will continue to differ across many regions, we see the highest broadband speeds in countries/regions with high population densities and strong government backing or support, as well as those that foster competition among internet providers.”

Akamai covered 62 countries in its report. While the UK topped the average broadband speed, the country was fifth in peak speed. Vietnam, on the other hand, was found to have the lowest average broadband speed of 1.3Mbps.