2023 vs 2022 – UK Broadband and Cellular Speeds vs the World

As standard, we’re ending 2023 by looking again to see how the UK’s place, at the very least when it comes to the highest 50 quickest international locations for each fastened broadband ISP and cell (4G, 5G) knowledge speeds, has modified since 2022. The UK fell from forty fourth to 51st for cell and was unchanged at 56th for fastened strains.

The next report was created by monitoring the publicly accessible knowledge launched through Ookla’s widespread Speedtest.web service for benchmarking web connections around the globe. Such companies do have caveats, similar to the truth that they are often impacted by different areas of the connection (e.g. gradual Wi-Fi, native community congestion, the efficiency of speedtest.web’s personal servers and client bundle alternative), however these points will likely be shared by all of the international locations on this research.

NOTE: Information is gathered in late November every year. The figures are all ‘median‘ averages.

In any other case, the primary differentiator for speeds between international locations tends to stem from the steadiness between community availability and the take-up of sooner connection varieties. For instance, international locations with a excessive protection of gigabit-capable broadband networks (FTTP, DOCSIS 3.1 – 4.0 and many others.) or robust 5G cell companies (with loads of radio spectrum to harness) will naturally rank highest within the desk.

When it comes to the UK, we’ve seen a robust and steady enchancment within the availability of each sooner fastened and cell networks. For instance, Ofcom just lately revealed (right here) that 1Gbps succesful fastened gigabit broadband networks had reached 78% (up from 70% final yr), which falls to 57% when solely taking a look at full fibre / FTTP strains (up from 42%).

As for 5G cell, it’s now accessible from at the very least one MNO (operator) within the neighborhood of round 85-93% of UK premises (up from 67-78% final yr).

Prime 50 Quickest Nations for Broadband in 2023

Total we are able to see from the info beneath that fastened and cell speeds have continued to enhance internationally however, regardless of massive enhancements in UK full fibre and 5G protection, different international locations nonetheless appear capable of enhance their real-world efficiency at a sooner or comparable tempo.

A part of the problem right here could also be as a result of the take-up of full fibre and gigabit-capable broadband strains within the UK continues to be within the early part of progress and adoption typically lags behind new community construct (i.e. it takes time to develop, typically 2-3 years so as to attain a point of maturity in every location).

We’ve summarised a few of the key adjustments beneath.

UK Fastened & Cellular Speeds vs The World (2023)

In any other case, the next tables present how the international locations evaluate, utilizing solely obtain pace as the important thing measure, throughout the highest 50 international locations.

Sadly, Ookla doesn’t make it simple to do the identical desk for uploads or latency.

Quickest 50 Nations for Fastened Broadband Pace (DL) in 2023

Quickest 50 Nations for Cellular Pace (DL) in 2023