10Mbps: the global broadband standard

The average international broadband speed is now above 10Mbps – while local broadband users have to suffice with average speeds of 2.89Mbps. This is according to Ookla’s global Net Index broadband speed statistics.

According to the Net Index website, which uses data from millions of recent test results from Speedtest.net, the average global download speed is 10.05Mbps – while the average upload speed is 3.73Mbps.

This global broadband average is boosted by countries like Estonia, Lithuania and South Korea which all have average downlink speeds higher than 30Mbps.

1. Estonia 40.91 Mbps
2. Lithuania 32.93 Mbps
3. South Korea 32.44 Mbps
4. Latvia 26.15 Mbps
5. Sweden 25.56 Mbps
6. Romania 24.71 Mbps
7. Netherlands 24.62 Mbps
8. Luxembourg 23.30 Mbps
9. Singapore 22.83 Mbps
10. Bulgaria 21.88 Mbps

Now compare these speeds with South Africa’s average download speed of 2.89Mbps and upload speed of 1.15Mbps, and it is clear that local broadband users are on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Many of South Africa’s broadband services offer speeds of 1Mbps or lower; with entry-level ADSL speeds starting at 384kbps.

Considering that many countries are ditching copper-based DSL services for fibre connections – which offer speeds of 1Gbps and higher – South Africa may fall even further behind global standards.

It is interesting to note that ADSL ISPs like Telkom, Internet Solutions, Cybersmart and Web Africa’s average speeds are well below 1Mbps.

The following list shows the average broadband speed of the country’s largest ISPs, as shown by Net Index:

1. Cell C – 1.32 Mbps
2. MTN – 1.25 Mbps
3. Vodacom – 1.25 Mbps
4. Web Intact t/a Screamer – 0.89 Mbps
5. Internet Solutions – 0.86 Mbps
6. Telkom – 0.69 Mbps
7. Cybersmart – 0.62 Mbps
8. Africa INX – 0.53 Mbps
9. WebAfrica 0.48 Mbps
10. MWEB Connect 0.35 Mbps