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Speed

When analyzing the improvement of internet speeds in recent quarters, 2018 was mostly a good year. On a global scale, both download and upload speeds have increased on fixed broadband and mobile. With gigabit services continuing to expand and 5G on the horizon, the internet is an undeniable driving force of every country’s economy and a basic component of modern life.

Trends in internet speeds typically reflect a country’s political system and the state of its technological progress. For example, countries with the highest speeds are leaders in innovation and personal liberties, whereas lower speeds denote poor internet infrastructure and, in some cases, a violation of civil liberties (with censorship and government surveillance impacting equipment efficiency).

Before we explore the world’s fastest and slowest speeds, let’s first examine the way speed is calculated and measured.

How internet speed is measured

Internet speed, which refers to the speed in which data or content travels from the World Wide Web to your computer or mobile device, is measured in Megabits per second (Mbps).

There are two main types of speeds that are taken into account when calculating a country’s average internet speed:

— Download speeds, or the time it takes for digital data to be transferred from the internet to your device

— Upload speeds, which refers to the rate in which digital data is transferred from your device to the Internet

The Nitty Gritty

Speed

To break the measurement Mbps down even further, one Megabit is equivalent to 1,024 Kilobits. This means one Megabits per second is 1,000 times faster than one Kilobits per second (Kbps). High-speed internet, better known as broadband (broad bandwidth) is defined by download speeds of at least 768 Kbps and upload speeds of at least 200 Kbps.

The fastest global speeds – March 2019

 

speed 2

So, with these metrics in mind, it’s time to gauge which countries across the globe demonstrate the fastest and slowest internet speeds on average.

Based on data from the Speedtest Global Index, which ranks international mobile and fixed broadband speeds on a monthly basis, here are the top 15 countries in each category as of March 2019:

Fastest Mobile Global Speeds

Global Average:

— Download – 26.12 Mbps
— Upload – 10.26 Mbps

Rank Country Mbps

  1. Norway 67.54
  2. Canada 65.90
  3. Qatar 60.97
  4. Netherlands 60.60
  5. Australia 58.87
  6. South Korea 54.89
  7. United Arab Emirates 53.83
  8. Singapore 53.69
  9. Switzerland 51.93
  10. Denmark 50.59
  11. Belgium 50.57
  12. Sweden 49.79
  13. Malta 48.86
  14. Czech Republic 48.84
  15. Albania 47.98— 26.5% faster than 2017

Want the full article? Learn all about wifi speeds around the world at Coworker.com.