The usage of the internet continues to grow rapidly across the globe, with mobile internet playing a central role in this digital revolution. However, there remains a clear disparity in internet speeds between countries, with nations in the Middle East and Asia leading the way. While countries like the UAE and Qatar set benchmarks for fast internet speeds, large nations such as the U.S. and India still face challenges in achieving high-speed mobile internet, primarily due to infrastructure limitations and regional differences. Despite these challenges, the overall trend points towards improved internet speeds and connectivity, which will likely continue to fuel global digital transformation.
As of October 2024, 5.52 billion people are using the internet, up by 151 million people in a year, and this trend keeps growing. The contribution of the internet to current life cannot be underestimated since it changes communication, business, and access to information. Mobile internet has grown fast, connecting over half of the world population with smartphones. With the speeds of mobile internet improving continually, there is always the case of disparity in terms of quality connection, where some countries lead the speed and others trail with slower speeds. This continues to form global economies and societies.
List of countries with the fastest mobile internet
According to the Speedtest Global Index, countries in the Middle East and Asia generally have the fastest mobile internet speeds. For example, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leads the global rankings, with mobile internet speeds increasing nearly 100 times in the nation’s capital, Dubai. The UAE has made considerable investments in digital infrastructure since 2012, helping it become a global leader in internet speeds.
Fastest mobile internet countries
United Arab Emirates (442 Mbps): The UAE comes on top, with the fastest mobile internet in the world. Continuously investing in the country’s digital infrastructure, especially in places such as Dubai, allows this country to achieve good speed. It is propelled into the ranks by their leading-edge 5G networks and more up-to-date technologies.
Qatar (358 Mbps): Qatar is located in the Middle East and ranks second. It has invested heavily in the telecom network, ensuring good high-speed internet, especially with the implementation of 5G services, providing robust mobile connectivity.
Kuwait (264 Mbps): Kuwait comes third, and the impressive speed has to do much with its being one of the first in the advanced mobile technology era and its further expansion into 4G and 5G, ensuring the internet is accessible speedily and stably for users.
Bulgaria (172 Mbps): Bulgaria ranks among the top-performing European nations. This is because there are affordable high-speed broadband and mobile services, sustained by a competitive telecom market.
Denmark (162 Mbps): Denmark ranks fifth with high-speed internet driven by substantial investments in infrastructure and one of the best 5G networks in Europe, enhancing mobile data speeds for users.
South Korea (48 Mbps): South Korea was one of the top in mobile technology, having long dominated internet rankings. With widespread usage of 5G networks across the country, the use of mobile internet speeds increases, placing it among the top globally, in telecom infrastructure.
Netherlands (147 Mbps): It comes in right below South Korea, which is based on good mobile network services and wide adoption of 5G. This is one of the most connected countries in Europe that offers fast and reliable mobile data.
Norway (145.74 Mbps): The country has fast mobile internet speeds with high-quality 4G and 5G networks supporting a highly tech-savvy population that requires fast internet both for personal and professional reasons.
China (139.58 Mbps): One of the largest economies in the world, China has rapidly expanded its 5G networks. It still faces challenges in rural areas but does not have any issue with speed in urban areas and remains a key player in the global mobile internet space.
Luxembourg (134.14 Mbps): Luxembourg completes the top 10 list by providing fast mobile internet. The country has a small size but it enjoys well-developed mobile infrastructure and rapid adoption of advanced technology, thus permitting high-speed mobile connections.
India’s mobile internet performance
India is the world’s second largest online market after China, with more than 900 million internet users, while the internet penetration in the country is low at above 50% global average. India ranks 25th globally for mobile internet speeds as of November 2024, the Speedtest Global Index states. The country’s median download speed stands at 100.78 Mbps, the upload at 9.08 Mbps, and latency at 30 ms. Even though Indian internet speeds have increased, they are still yet to close the gap on many of the high-income countries-both in infrastructure-related challenges as well as India’s overall digital divide.
This means the internet, in particular via mobile phones, has been able to connect many people in the world. Mobile Internet usage is a far bigger growth rate factor in enhancing global internet penetration. It is even interesting that nowadays mobile internet has been one of the major access enablers because more and more users rely on smart phones and mobile devices for web access.
Indeed, the fast growth in the rate at which people use the mobile internet has led to rapid rises in average speeds for mobile internet connections due to almost half of world inhabitants using mobile internet online with over 58 percent of world’s population or more so approximately 4.7 billion people, with well above 2.1 billion additional mobile internet users between 2015 and 2023, by the GSMA.
Improvements in the increase in mobile internet speed
Other than the growing number of internet users, mobile internet speeds have also grown. According to DataReportal, average global download speeds for mobile users have increased by nearly 30% from the previous year, now at 55.8 Mbps. Improvement in mobile internet speed would indicate both mobile internet infrastructure development and high-speed mobile data networks’ increasing availability.
However, even with this, there is still a “digital divide”. Some countries are lagging behind in internet speed and unreliability; while other regions in some countries cannot even install digital infrastructure. Other countries, however, have come along in leaps and bounds, boasting speeds of mobile internet that far exceed the average globally.
