The UAE has the highest mobile internet speed out of 137 countries with an average data rate of 179.61 Mbps

According to one of the most authoritative internet speed testing services, the UAE has the highest mobile internet speed out of 137 countries with an average speed of 179.61 Mbps.

The rankings were updated in February 2023 by Speedtest.net (also known as Speedtest by Ookla), a web service that provides fixed broadband and mobile network testing applications, data and analysis.

Rounding out the top 5 mobile internet speeds are: Qatar (160.33 Mbps), South Korea (138.46 Mbps), Norway 131.23 (Mbps) and Denmark (123.66 Mbps).

Ookla analyzes Internet access performance metrics such as connection data rate and latency (latency). The UAE maintained the same Ookla ranking it had in February 2022 and the previous two years.

• The UAE ranks first in the world for mobile internet speed, with an average internet speed of 179.61 megabytes per second (Mbps), compared to a global average of 39.77 Mbps (upload) and 10.18 Mbps (download).

• The UAE’s new average mobile data rate of 179.61 Mbps is a significant increase – 33.5% higher than the 134.48 Mbps recorded in September 2022, when the global average data rate was 30 Mbps.

• The UAE ranks fifth globally in terms of home Internet “fixed broadband” speeds, with an average data rate of 219.47 Mbps in February, compared with global averages of 78.62 Mbps (download) and 34.39 Mbps (download).

• The UAE also outperformed its September 2022 average of 124.7 Mbps, when the global average was 63.46 Mbps.

From January 2022 to June 2022, the UAE is the country with the fastest average mobile download speed in the world, according to Speedtest Global Index.

In September 2022, Ookla has named Etisalat (e&) the world’s fastest mobile network operator for the second year in a row.

The index is based on an analysis of millions of tests initiated by each network’s customers to check internet speed using various applications on web and mobile platforms.

The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) said that in August 2022, the UAE ranks among the world’s leading countries in several digital life indices.

In its report titled ‘Digital Lifestyles in the UAE’, TDRA said that the UAE ranks first globally in social media usage, first in the Arab region for e-commerce and second globally in usage. The Internet ranks first in the Arab region and ninth in the world. The report also noted that the UAE was the first country in the region to have a digital government in 2001.