A recent report suggests that the UK has the fastest mobile internet speeds in the world.
It’s not a great time to be a Brit. The country is in political, social, and economic turmoil following the recent shock pro-Brexit referendum result. The less said about Euro 2016 the better – unless you’re Welsh.
If you’re looking for a little positive UK news, though, allow us to provide some: we’ve got really good mobile internet. Hey, I said it was only a little.
Content delivery company Akamai has just posted its quarterly State of the Internet report. Among its findings was this interesting morsel: the UK has the highest average mobile internet speeds in the world.
As the report relates, UK mobile users recorded average connection speeds of 27.9 Mbps in the first quarter of 2016. That’s around 10 Mbps faster than most of Europe, and a massive 20 Mbps faster than the US.
Of course, as The Verge points out, Akamai’s unique methodology for collecting this data tends to work in the UK’s favour. The speeds recorded are between mobile network proxies and Akamai’s servers rather than between those servers and mobile devices.
There are other factors at play, too, such as the fact that IP sharing, very small downloads, and parallel requests can drag down overall speeds.
Related: What is 5G?
This all might explain why the UK tops the table here rather than sitting in the middle of the pack, well below the likes of Singapore, as in other reports.
But it’s still a strong performance by the UK. And frankly, Brits will take any good news they can get right now.
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Are you satisfied with the quality of the mobile internet connection in your area? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
