2024 vs 2023 – UK Broadband and Mobile Speeds vs the World

Thursday, Dec 26th, 2024 (12:01 am) - Score 2,080

World-broadband-download-and-upload-speeds

Once again we’re ending 2024 by taking a look back to see how the United Kingdom’s position, at least in terms of the top 50 fastest countries for both fixed broadband ISP and mobile (4G, 5G) data speeds, has changed since 2023. Overall, the UK fell from 51st to 53rd for mobile and jumped from 56th to 44th for fixed lines.

The following report was created by harnessing data from Ookla’s popular Speedtest.net service for benchmarking internet connections around the world, which admittedly does have its caveats. For example, the data can be impacted by other aspects of the connection (e.g. slow Wi-Fi, local network congestion, the performance of speedtest.net’s own servers and consumer package choice), but these issues are shared by all of the countries.

NOTE: Data is gathered in November each year and the figures are all ‘median‘ averages.

However, the main differentiator for speeds between countries tends to stem from the balance between network availability and the take-up of faster connection types. For example, countries with a high coverage of gigabit-capable broadband networks (FTTP, DOCSIS 3.1 – 4.0 etc.) or strong 5G mobile services (ideally with plenty of radio spectrum for them to harness) will naturally rank highest in the table.

In terms of the UK, we’ve seen a strong and continuous improvement in the availability of both faster fixed and mobile networks. For example, Ofcom recently revealed (here) that 1Gbps capable fixed gigabit broadband networks had reached 84% of premises (up from 78% last year), which falls to 69% when only looking at full fibre / FTTP lines (up from 57%).

As for 5G mobile, it is now available from at least one MNO (operator) in the vicinity of around 90-95% of UK premises (up from 85-93% last year) or 61-79% when looking at outside areas with availability from all operators combined.

Top 50 Fastest Countries for Broadband in 2024

The data below reveals that fixed line broadband and mobile speeds have continued to improve across the world. But despite some noted improvements in 5G coverage, other countries still seem able to improve their real-world mobile performance at a faster or similar pace. On the flip side, the UK has seen its first ranking improvement for fixed line performance in several years, which reflects the growing coverage and take-up of full fibre lines.

We’ve summarised some of the key changes below.

UK Fixed & Mobile Speeds vs The World (2024)

Performance Categories	2024	2023
UK Country Rank for Fixed Line	44th	56th
Global Latency – Fixed Line	9ms	9ms
Global Upload – Fixed Line	50.26Mbps	40.45Mbps
Global Download – Fixed Line	94.52Mbps	87.79Mbps
UK Latency – Fixed Line	13ms	13ms
UK Upload – Fixed Line	30.28Mbps	24.58Mbps
UK Download – Fixed Line	117.49Mbps	84.93Mbps

UK Country Rank for Mobile	53rd	51st
Global Latency – Mobile	27ms	27ms
Global Upload – Mobile	11.33Mbps	11.03Mbps
Global Download – Mobile	59.15Mbps	48.47Mbps
UK Latency – Mobile	34ms	34ms
UK Upload – Mobile	7.64Mbps	7.24Mbps
UK Download – Mobile	56.34Mbps	47.65Mbps

Otherwise, the following tables show how the countries compare, using only download speed as the key measure, across the top 50 countries.

Sadly, Ookla doesn’t make it easy to do the same table for uploads or latency.

Fastest 50 Countries for Fixed Broadband Speed (DL) in 2024

Country (2024)	Mbps	Country (2023)	Mbps
Singapore	316.99	Singapore	264.15
United Arab Emirates	300.54	Hong Kong (SAR)	263.07
Hong Kong (SAR)	296.97	Chile	248.65
Chile	279.14	United Arab Emirates	235.72
United States	253.34	China	230.39
France	247.35	Thailand	218.94
Thailand	236.12	United States	215.72
Denmark	230.41	Denmark	206.8
Iceland	224.58	Iceland	204.8
Romania	220.66	France	200.99
Spain	217.92	Romania	191.36
Switzerland	214.8	Spain	189.37
Israel	211.64	Monaco	187.49
Taiwan	208.17	Switzerland	187.48
Canada	201.32	Netherlands	177.88
Macau (SAR)	200.39	Japan	170.29
Kuwait	199.27	Canada	165.67
Japan	196.27	New Zealand	163.16
China	194.79	Macau (SAR)	160.52
Netherlands	191.86	Taiwan	157.55
Liechtenstein	187.86	Andorra	156.9
Qatar	186.79	Kuwait	153.58
Hungary	185.94	Liechtenstein	152.22
Peru	185.54	Portugal	150.45
Portugal	182.62	Hungary	149.85
New Zealand	180.75	Panama	148.76
Brazil	180	Israel	144.81
South Korea	168.13	Uruguay	143.06
Poland	167.46	South Korea	139.83
Jordan	158.86	Brazil	136.92
Uruguay	158.83	Poland	133.35
Panama	158.18	Sweden	127.33
Colombia	157.29	Qatar	127.04
Sweden	154.48	Norway	123.63
Vietnam	153.21	Luxembourg	117.66
Luxembourg	152.84	Colombia	111.65
Lithuania	139.37	Malaysia	110.8
Ireland	138.96	Jordan	109.58
Norway	138.36	Moldova	108.2
Malta	129.24	Malta	108.19
Moldova	127.34	Vietnam	104.08
Finland	124.37	Lithuania	103.26
Malaysia	120.8	Finland	102.43
United Kingdom	117.49	Saudi Arabia	102.41
Trinidad and Tobago	116.91	Trinidad and Tobago	100.68
Saudi Arabia	114.37	Saint Lucia	99.96
Belgium	105.21	Ireland	94.62
Costa Rica	98.16	Peru	93.52
Ecuador	94.74	Barbados	92.96
Guyana	94.61	Philippines	91.08

Fastest 50 Countries for Mobile Speed (DL) in 2024

Country (2024)	Mbps	Country (2023)	Mbps
United Arab Emirates	428.53	United Arab Emirates	269.41
Qatar	356.74	Qatar	206.8
Kuwait	258.51	Kuwait	191.74
Denmark	149.73	China	164.14
Bulgaria	147.68	Macau (SAR)	155.75
South Korea	146.42	Norway	146.02
Netherlands	142.84	South Korea	145.25
Norway	139.37	Denmark	143.63
Luxembourg	127.57	Bulgaria	142.07
Singapore	123.73	Iceland	139.52
Saudi Arabia	121.94	Netherlands	119.34
United States	116.75	Saudi Arabia	106.01
Bahrain	116.66	United States	103.69
China	115.89	Australia	97.44
Finland	109.01	Bahrain	97.19
North Macedonia	106.37	Sweden	97.07
France	105.75	Finland	95.48
Malaysia	104.8	Croatia	89.51
Australia	103	Singapore	89.45
Estonia	102.86	Switzerland	89.45
Sweden	101.84	Canada	87.85
Switzerland	99.22	Luxembourg	85.76
Lithuania	97.76	Brunei	85.13
Mauritius	97.31	Lithuania	84.8
Maldives	95.79	France	82.6
India	95.67	North Macedonia	81.98
Latvia	94	Austria	78.92
Taiwan	92.58	India	75.86
Oman	89.35	Taiwan	75.77
New Zealand	88.39	Portugal	75.71
Belgium	86.92	Greece	72.45
Austria	86.64	New Zealand	72.32
Portugal	85.12	Estonia	72.07
Croatia	84.86	Hong Kong (SAR)	69.59
Czechia	83.4	Belgium	68.54
Cyprus	82.28	Maldives	67.59
Slovenia	79.8	Cyprus	67.37
Malta	79.29	Malaysia	66.84
Canada	79.17	Oman	66.02
Brazil	78.2	Uruguay	66
Greece	77.36	Germany	64.74
Georgia	74.47	Latvia	64.42
Vietnam	71.23	Malta	61.03
Kosovo	68.24	Slovenia	60.52
Hong Kong (SAR)	65.09	Czechia	56.11
Romania	63.44	Montenegro	53.16
Poland	61.66	Serbia	52.41
Slovakia	59.85	Romania	50.95
Montenegro	58.33	Albania	50.06
Serbia	58.21	Brazil	47.98

Tags: Building Digital UK , Politics , Project Gigabit , Statistics

By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.

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Comments

10 Responses

Lonpfrb says:

December 26, 2024 at 2:01 pm

“69% when only looking at full fibre / FTTP”
Is a woeful result from UK government Project Gigabit showing that Openreach has very poor reach indeed.
An epic fail for FTTP deployment as 5G rollout may leave sufficient 4G capacity for the rural coverage that OR cannot reach.
Remaining below the top 50 shows the poverty of ambition for the self identified growth government.
Allowing consolidation to just three mobile networks with no improvement to service required confirms their lack of ambition, never mind the redundancies that will provide savings…

Reply
BigBrad says:

December 26, 2024 at 2:45 pm

The figures are BS and do not tell the full story.

Reply
1. SicOf says:
  
  January 4, 2025 at 9:33 pm
  
  Err ” have had to spend money replacing questionable huawei and possibly other chinese equipment”
  more like Wasted money (and of taxpayers) via CxOs, nad stndat
  rds and testing of, bad governance and managment of and equipment selection / down selection. Depends on who was paid to be the SME and and service liabilities – ultimately down to the contracting of.
  Not to mention any country’s nefarious back door requirements or envy of others’.
james smith says:

December 26, 2024 at 10:17 pm

as much as it might not be an excuse, I believe that in the last 12 months uk networks have had to spend money replacing questionable huawei and possibly other chinese equipment.

Antiquated 3g equipmen has been upgraded too as I understand it.
Companies only have so much money

Reply
1. BigBrad says:
  
  December 29, 2024 at 3:08 pm
  
  if we wasnt a US puppet would never have had to replace anything.
  
  for decades we had no issue and then because US says jump we ask how high.
  
  we are buying equipment which now costs almost double price as well.
  
  should have put in place the new upgrades before you switch off old system.
ad47uk says:

December 28, 2024 at 6:51 am

The speed of fixed broadband is getting better in the U.K, mainly due to Alt nets as they are the ones that are going to 2Gb/s both ways. Sure, the majority of people don’t need the speed or 1Gb/s for that matter, but it is available for many,. Granted, openreach have a larger coverage, mainly due to their size and how long they have been around and the money they have made over the years.

Not that long ago, it would have been unthinkable that here we were going to have anything faster than 80Mb/s and that is if you were lucky to live next to a cabinet.
Just need to get fibre to other people who want it now.

Reply
1. james smith says:
  
  December 28, 2024 at 5:10 pm
  
  ref 80mb/s being the top speed. I remember it being 48k
2. John Thomas says:
  
  December 29, 2024 at 12:03 am
  
  80mbs is probably enough for one person or 2 people for the time being but depending on the house hold and area FTTP is must the future proofing is necessary perhaps in future 1gb might not even be enough thus saying 80mbs is enough is stupid. Plus every house hold must have ONT then they can decide what kind of speeds they want
3. 125us says:
  
  December 30, 2024 at 10:28 pm
  
  ‘Mainly due to altnets’?
  
  That’s quite the analysis. Millions and millions of homes passed by Openreach and higher speeds on the Virgin O2 network that reaches most of the country is what has moved the needle.
4. SicOf says:
  
  January 4, 2025 at 9:42 pm
  
  Spped wouldn’t be so much of of an issue if there wasn’t so much bloat of data fed across the web, having to watch a video of everything rather than being abel to read a page of text, etc. But then it’s just like sowftaware, bloat forcing HW bloat for a lot of fancy rather than function.
  But its good for business, consumers having to continually upgrade everything, $$$$, a bit sad for the plannet though, we really all need clear water, air, food, materials resources etc. but many wont make $$$$ from that.