London Ranked 10th Best City in the World for Connected Travellers

A new study by TravelSim has analysed the number of free wifi hotspots, cost per MegaByte of data, average broadband speeds (mobile / wireless) and the number of hotels and airports with free wifi in 19 of the world’s most visited destinations to find the best and worst cities to stay connected whilst travelling.

Overall Paris (France) took the top spot, which was thanks in no small part to the city having the highest number of wifi hotspots per km2 (3,547) and free wifi was also available from 1,847 hotels and B&B’s. The average speed in Paris is 24Mbps (double that of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) and that’s “just over the world average of 22.95Mbps” according to the data.

By comparison London ranked 10th and appeared to be tied in that position with Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and Kuala Lumpar (Malaysia). The UK city has the most airports with free wifi (5), one of the lowest costs per MB of data (£0.03), an average internet speed of 16Mbps, 450 wifi hotspots per km2 and 1,714 hotels and B&B’s with free wifi.

We assume the focus here is on mobile broadband and WiFi connectivity because the average speeds data seems like it probably overlooks fixed line broadband, which is also largely irrelevant to travellers. The average speeds data itself appears to be sourced from Nomadlist, which isn’t clear about how it arrived at the results (take with a pinch of salt).

The Top 19 Best Connected Cities

Sadly Dubai (United Arab Emirates) sits at the bottom, which is despite its reputation for being very modern. The city charged the highest price for one MB of data at £4.44 and having an average internet speed of just 8Mbps (twice as slow as the likes of London, three times slower than Paris and over ten times slower than Singapore).

Antalya and Istanbul in Turkey both also scored low in the index, with Istanbul’s internet speed dropping to 7Mbps. Antalya, Turkey has the least number of free wifi hotspots with only 7,129 across the city, and only 5 per km2. You can check out the source data for all this online (here).