Western Europe dominates world’s fastest internet rankings

Western Europe dominates world’s fastest internet rankings

Western Europe placed first in an annual ranking of the world’s fastest internet regions. Researchers from Cable.co.uk measured average download speeds of 99 Mbps in Western European countries. The region ranked the highest out of 13 global regions.

Cable.co.uk conducts annual research on global internet speeds. In the most recent edition, eight of the top sixteen fastest countries were part of the European Economic Area (EEA). The researchers measured a total of 220 countries. “All 28 countries measured in Western Europe were in the top half of the table”, Cable.co.uk said.

“The fastest average speeds in the world are no longer accelerating away from the rest of the field, since FTTP/pure fibre saturation is hitting its current limits in many of the fastest locations”, the organization added. “Europe absolutely dominates the leaderboard once again thanks to largely excellent infrastructure. In all cases, those countries ranking highest are those with a strong focus on pure fibre (FTTP) networks, with those countries dawdling too much on FTTC and ADSL solutions slipping further down year-on-year.”

Small countries score big

The top three are Macau (Asia), Jersey and Iceland (Western Europe). The countries are relatively small. “There is also a strong correlation between the size of the geographical area in question and the speed offered, with smaller countries easier to service and upgrade and therefore often offering faster average speeds.”

The lowest speeds can be found in Turkmenistan (0.77 Mbps), Timor-Leste (0.94 Mbps), Yemen (0.97 Mbps), Guinea-Bissau (0.98 Mbps) and Afghanistan (0.98 Mbps). According to the researchers, the countries have an underdeveloped network infrastructure. Citizens rarely use digital services.

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