South Africa’s broadband speeds vs the world
UK broadband aggregator, Cable.co.uk, has compiled a list of the best and worst global broadband speeds, ranking South Africa with the 80th fastest average in the world.
According to Cable, its rankings are based on an analysis of over 63 million speed tests, world-wide, conducted in the 12 months to 10 May 2017.
The data was collected by M-Lab – a partnership between New America’s Open Technology Institute, Google Open Source Research, Princeton University’s PlanetLab, and other supporting partners.
The data revealed that the five fastest countries have download speeds around 40 times faster than the five slowest.
Singapore tops the table at 55.13Mbps, compared to Yemen, which is more than 162 times slower at just 0.34Mbps.
Top 15 broadband speeds
| # | Country | Average speed (Mbps) | Time to download 7.5GB file |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore | 55.13 | 00:00:18:34 |
| 2 | Sweden | 40.16 | 00:00:25:30 |
| 3 | Taiwan | 34.40 | 00:00:29:46 |
| 4 | Denmark | 33.54 | 00:00:30:32 |
| 5 | Netherlands | 33.52 | 00:00:30:33 |
| 6 | Latvia | 30.36 | 00:00:33:43 |
| 7 | Norway | 29.13 | 00:00:35:09 |
| 8 | Belgium | 27.37 | 00:00:37:25 |
| 9 | Hong Kong | 27.16 | 00:00:37:42 |
| 10 | Switzerland | 26.93 | 00:00:38:01 |
| 11 | Lithuania | 25.12 | 00:00:40:46 |
| 12 | Japan | 24.47 | 00:00:41:51 |
| 13 | Estonia | 24.11 | 00:00:42:28 |
| 14 | Jersey | 23.30 | 00:00:43:57 |
| 15 | Hungary | 23.16 | 00:00:44:12 |
South Africa ranked 80th out of the 189 countries assessed, with an average speed of 4.36 Mbps, based off of 93,400 tests from 44,000 unique IPs.
At this rate, it took the group just under 3 hours and 55 minutes to download a 7.5GB file. This, compared to the 18 and a half minutes it took in Singapore, and the 50 hours (over 2 days) it took in Yemen.
Bottom 15 broadband speeds
| # | Country | Average speed (Mbps) | Time to download 7.5GB file |
|---|---|---|---|
| 175 | Guinea | 0.84 | 00:20:17:59 |
| 176 | Mali | 0.84 | 00:20:19:30 |
| 177 | Tajikistan | 0.83 | 00:20:34:16 |
| 178 | Uzbekistan | 0.76 | 00:22:26:41 |
| 179 | Paraguay | 0.75 | 00:22:38:10 |
| 180 | Benin | 0.73 | 00:23:27:23 |
| 181 | Congo | 0.72 | 00:23:32:37 |
| 182 | Venezuela | 0.70 | 01:00:24:26 |
| 183 | Syria | 0.68 | 01:01:17:00 |
| 184 | Vanuatu | 0.63 | 01:03:00:56 |
| 185 | Somalia | 0.62 | 01:03:27:33 |
| 186 | DRC | 0.55 | 01:07:17:51 |
| 187 | Burkina Faso | 0.49 | 01:10:51:46 |
| 188 | Gabon | 0.41 | 01:17:54:39 |
| 189 | Yemen | 0.34 | 02:02:02:28 |
20 of the top 30 fastest-performing countries are located in Europe, with 7 in Asia, 2 in North America and 1 in Oceania.
By contrast, 17 of the 30 slowest-performing countries are located in Africa, with 7 in Asia, 6 in South America and 1 in Oceania.
139 countries failed to achieve average speeds above 10Mbps, a speed deemed by telecoms watchdog Ofcom to be the minimum required to cope with the needs of a typical family or small business.
Top broadband speeds in Africa
| # | Country | Average speed (Mbps) | Time to download 7.5GB file |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenya | 8.83 | 00:01:55:55 |
| 2 | Seychelles | 5.84 | 00:02:55:21 |
| 3 | Morocco | 4.38 | 00:03:53:40 |
| 4 | South Africa | 4.36 | 00:03:54:54 |
| 5 | Tunisia | 3.50 | 00:04:52:23 |
| 6 | Madagascar | 3.49 | 00:04:53:15 |
| 7 | Nigeria | 3.15 | 00:05:25:27 |
| 8 | Zimbabwe | 2.49 | 00:06:50:34 |
| 9 | Zambia | 2.45 | 00:06:58:05 |
| 10 | Ghana | 2.30 | 00:07:26:11 |
| 11 | Liberia | 2.12 | 00:08:03:18 |
| 12 | Uganda | 2.12 | 00:08:04:00 |
| 13 | Rwanda | 2.11 | 00:08:05:02 |
| 14 | Cape Verde | 2.0 | 00:08:32:04 |
| 15 | Namibia | 1.81 | 00:09:26:07 |
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