Global Internet speeds increased by more than 30 percent this year according to a new report from Ookla, the company best known for operating speedtest.net.
Mobile downloads increased 30.1 percent over the past 12 months while mobile uploads are up 38.9 percent. Similarly, fixed downloads sped up by 31.6 percent and uploads shot up by 25.9 percent. All things considered, mobile downloads now average 20.28 Mbps while fixed broadband downloads now check in at a global average speed of 40.11 Mbps.
Ookla reports that as of November 2017, there were 119 countries with faster mobile download speeds than the global average and 134 countries with slower-than-average speeds. On the fixed broadband side, 71 countries had faster download speeds compared to the global average while 185 were slower.
Year-over-year, Laos registered the largest improvement in mobile download speed with a 249.5 percent increase. Vietnam also helped itself out in 2017 with a 188.7 percent mobile download speed increase followed by Trinidad and Tobago with a 133.1 percent improvement.
Reunion, Guatemala and Ghana realized the largest fixed broadband download improvements with 141.5 percent, 116.7 percent and 82.1 percent year-over-year increases, respectively.
Unfortunately, Ookla also found “far too many” countries and regions where Internet speeds decreased compared to last year. In Puerto Rico, where the effects of Hurricane Maria are still being felt, mobile download speeds dropped by nearly 40 percent. Mobile downloads fell by 31.8 percent in Uzbekistan and dropped 26.1 percent in Côte d'Ivoire.
Fixed broadband download speeds weren’t hit as hard as mobile. In Algeria, for example, the year-over-year change was just 23.9 percent followed by a 9.1 percent drop in Ecuador and a 6.5 percent decrease in Latvia.
For those curious, mobile download speeds in the US increased 22 percent to 26.32 Mbps while fixed broadband downloads improved by 37.3 percent to 75.94 Mbps.
Source: https://www.techspot.com/news/72315-global-mobile-internet-speeds-increased-30-percent-2017.html