Akamai, creator of globally utilized network optimization and analytics tools, is in a position to gather a very large amount of data on internet usage, such as speed, connection quality, connection usage, network congestion and other metrics that speak to overall network quality. Naturally, with their software being found in a large number of servers that have applications in the mobile world, they are able to analyze mobile internet as well. Each quarter, they leverage this knowledge to create their “State of the Internet” report, detailing things like the average speeds within nations, network development in rural areas, network density and how densification efforts are working, and a good number of other metrics. The report for the final quarter of 2015 has just come out, and in average mobile broadband speed, the United Kingdom is crowned the clear winner.
The UK is one of the largest and most mature mobile markets out there, right up there with areas like China and the United States. In the UK, however, network densification efforts can reach further in urban areas and have slightly fewer users to cater to. On top of that, the UK boasts some of the strongest worldwide LTE signals. With these factors working together, it’s no wonder the UK sees its average mobile network speed on a per user basis sitting pretty at a fast 26.8 megabits per second. To put that in perspective, an average song will download in literally a fingersnap, most 1080p YouTube videos will buffer for 2 seconds before being entirely playable, and the average Facebook feed will load the first hundred posts or so, pictures and videos and all, in roughly three seconds, making it seem to load instantly on most devices.
Figures varied wildly around the globe, of course. Iran was at the bottom of the list in average speed, getting only 1.3 megabits per second. In peak speeds, Australia took home the crown with an absolutely insane 153.3 megabits per second, enough to download a 4 gigabyte file in under 4 minutes. As for other exceptionally large markets, China’s average was only 4.1 megabits per second, with a peak speed at 26.7, while the United States had a reasonable 14.2 average and a peak of 61.5 megabits per second and India’s networks showed somewhat lower speeds, with an average of 2.8 and a peak of 21.2. These speeds give a decent picture of how it is to be on a mobile network in these countries, but should be taken with a grain of salt; the only data that Akamai has to go off of is from those connecting through their network tools at some point in the relay. Still, despite the lack of a holistic picture, Akamai’s data can prove quite useful for seeing worldwide network trends.