Nigeria Ranks 105th in Mobile Internet Speed

• Nigeria Ranks 105th in Mobile Internet Speed

Nigeria ranked 105th in mobile Internet download speed as of December 2018, down two places from its 103th position in November, the latest data from the Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index showed.

The country’s ranking for fixed broadband speed also dropped by three places; it occupied 106th position globally in December.

The report indicated that Nigeria’s average mobile Internet download speed in December was the highest in the year, recording 11.70 megabits per second.

The Internet speed was lowest at 9.50mbps in March last year.

The index, which compares Internet speed data from around the world on a monthly basis, stated that the global average for mobile Internet download speed for the 125 countries examined in December was 25.08mbps while 9.79mbps was the global average upload speed attained.

In the fixed broadband category, Nigeria’s average download speed dropped from a peak of 10.03mbps in January to 9.63mbps in February.

The global average for fixed broadband download speed for the country was 10.76mbps while it recorded 8.74mbps for the upload speed.

As per the December Speedtest Global Index, Iceland clinched the top position in the mobile broadband category globally with an average download speed of 72.77mbps while Norway came second with 65.88mbps.

Singapore ranked highest for fixed broadband with a 190.94mbps average download and 198.11mbps upload speed.

The Nigerian Communications Commission data indicated that the number of active subscribers to Internet services in the country increased to 111.6 million in December 2018.

This is an indication that the country gained 3,175,465 new Internet users between November and December 2018, recording a three per cent rise in subscribers under the Global System for Mobile communication category.

Fixed wireless network providers, however, lost 87 users, dropping to 9,868 users in December from 9,955 subscribers in December, the NCC statistics stated.

An analysis of the data revealed that the number of active subscribers for data services under the voice over Internet Protocol category, made up of ntel and Smile communications, lost 5,896 users in the month under review.