Fixed and mobile networks around the world continued to get faster last year, according to new figures from Ookla. On average, global mobile network download speeds increased 16.8% between November 2021 and November 2022, while fixed broadband speeds jumped 28% on a global basis.
Global upload speeds saw a 9% increase on mobile networks and at least 30% increase on wireline networks. Latency remained the same on fixed broadband networks at 10 ms, while it ticked down slightly on mobile networks from 29 milliseconds in 2021 to 28 ms in 2022, Ookla said.
In terms of network speeds by country, Ookla named the top 10 countries with the fastest fixed broadband download speeds as: Chile, China, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, the United States, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Monaco and Romania.
Qatar took the top spot in mobile network speeds, as local operators pouring investment into improving 5G reach and speeds driven both by an eager transition to 5G as well as the desire to showcase their capabilities on the global stage with Qatar’s role as host of last year’s FIFA World Cup. The GSMA said in late 2022 that local market leader Ooredoo Qatar achieved 99.5% population coverage in the first quarter of last year, with Vodafone Qatar “committed to near universal coverage by the end of 2022”; both operators achieved median network speeds greater than 400 Mbps by the second quarter of 2022, according to Ookla figures.
The other 9 countries with the fastest mobile network speeds on a global basis were the UAE, Norway, South Korea, Denmark, China, the Netherlands, Macau, Bulgaria and Brunei.
All of those countries have a median download speed of more than 100 Mbps on mobile networks, Ookla noted; Qatar’s was 176.18 Mbps, compared to 98.10 Mbps last year.
