Best and Worst Countries for Wi-Fi Access

– This is a guest post from Ooma, we have put our resources into reinventing the home phone, we’ve taken phone service from dial tone to internet wave with only the best quality service. You can find the original post “here” [https://www.ooma.com/blog/best-worst-wifi-countries/] where you can also read more about us, and the infographic used to show all data pertinent to this article. –

Wi-Fi Access: Which Countries Have the Best Internet Speeds?

Download the infographic URL: http://www.ooma.com/blog/best-worst-wifi-countries/

Fast-advancing Internet technology has connected the world in new and high-tech ways over the past few decades. Passing information from continent to continent with the click of a button is an impressive accomplishment. But even with these advances, Internet access varies greatly depending on the location.

Here is a breakdown of the best and worst countries for wireless Internet access.

Connection Speed: By the Country

Of the top 20 countries for public Wi-Fi connections, the United States comes in 20th place with an average download speed of 6.89 Mbps and upload speed of 4.37 Mbps. Close to last place are Canada and Portugal, while the leader of the pack is Lithuania with download speeds of 15.4 Mbps and upload speeds of 14.17 Mbps. Some countries also vary widely in their uploading and downloading capabilities. One example is Hungary, where the average download speed is 10.37 Mbps but the upload speed is a much lower 4.03 Mbps. In Hungary, it will take you more than twice the time to upload a video than it will to download one. Meanwhile, in the U.S., you will find equal but slightly slower timeframes to complete both tasks.

Countries With Rapidly Increasing Internet Speeds

Because not all countries were created equal in their access to Wi-Fi, there are some countries where Internet access is growing at fast rates. Most admirable is Kenya’s growth of 297% in Internet speed within one year. Indonesia, Egypt and Qatar also experienced increases beyond 100% in the last year. Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Vietnam, Thailand, Iran and South Africa also boasted over 50% increases to their Internet speeds. Those stats provide a quick illustration of how worldwide connectivity is only getting stronger.

Wi-Fi Access Based on Mobile Connectivity

Using smartphones and similar devices to connect to the Internet is now a popular practice. In fact, mobile connectivity has increased by 55% in the last 12 months. So which country has the best environment for mobile connectivity? The United Kingdom tops the charts with an average speed of 21.3 Mbps. Belgium and Cyprus also carry impressive speeds over 20 Mbps, while the slowest speeds are found in Venezuela (2.2 Mbps) and Vietnam (2.8 Mbps). Surprisingly, South Korea has fast all-access Internet speeds but slow mobile connectivity. The U.K. is the opposite, with quick mobile speeds and slower all-access Internet — great for surfing the web on the go!

Hotspot Sharing

Hotspots have grown by 888% since 2013 across the planet, but that doesn’t mean they are found everywhere … yet. When it’s broken down per capita, France has the fewest number of people battling for a hotspot at 2.8, and Belgium is close behind with 2.9 people per hotspot. On average, the U.K. has 6.6 people per hotspot, while the U.S. has 5.8. Some countries have a lot more than a handful of folks butting in for some hotspot use. For instance, China has 82 people per hotspot and Colombia has 214,523 people per hotspot. Better hope that signal is a strong one!

It’s safe to say that Internet access varies greatly from country to country, and depending on what you need to accomplish, some places far exceed others. This information is great to know for traveling so you can decide what to download ahead of time and what you can save for later. Also, for careers that spread to international cities, it’s handy to know what’s happening on the other side of the communication!