Digital 2022: Internet Connection Speeds Accelerate
Data from Ookla featured in our Digital 2022 Global Overview Report reveals that internet connection speeds continue to accelerate.
Data for November 2021 shows that the typical mobile internet user enjoyed a median download speed of 29Mbps, which is plenty fast enough to stream a 4K movie without any buffering.
These latest mobile speeds are nearly one-third faster (+32.2 percent) than the median speed for November 2020, which is an impressive jump considering how much additional cellular data the world’s mobile users consume each month.
Note that – until recently – Ookla focused on mean connection speeds, but over the past few months, the company has put greater emphasis on the more representative median values (click here to understand the difference).
Whichever value we look at though, the story is still the same: for most people, internet connections got a lot faster over the past year.
The global average speed for fixed internet connections is still higher than that of mobile connections though, with the median fixed download speed in November 2021 (58Mbps) close to double the same figure for November 2020.
Fixed internet speeds also increased more quickly than mobile connection speeds, with the global median speed of fixed connections up by 40 percent year on year.
However, Ookla’s data reveals that median mobile speeds are now faster than median fixed speeds in more than 50 countries.
Cuba is home to the most extreme mobile skew, with the median mobile connection speed in the country currently 8 times faster than its median fixed connection speed.
Meanwhile, median mobile connection speeds in the Maldives and Ethiopia are at least 4 times faster than their respective fixed connection speeds.
At the other end of the spectrum, the median fixed connection in Chile is currently 12 times faster than the country’s median mobile connection.
These numbers make for some great trivia, but what do rapidly accelerating connections actually mean for the world’s internet users, especially if the typical user can already stream a 4K movie over their mobile connection?
The answer lies in technologies that already exist, but which currently only enjoy limited consumer adoption.
For example, extended reality (XR) and augmented reality (AR) both hold significant promise in areas such as ecommerce, but most consumer applications are still limited to relatively basic implementations like filters for video calls.
However, as mobile connection speeds accelerate – and especially as latency decreases – we can expect to see significant improvements in the quality of XR and AR experiences.
Latency is also an important consideration for mobile gaming, and as 5G becomes more widely available, we can expect to see a change in the kinds of games that people are able to enjoy on their mobile devices.
Looking further ahead, continued improvements in connection speeds, mobile bandwidth, and latency will also be crucial factors in creating engaging metaverse experiences, especially for out-of-home environments.
If you’d like to know more about the potential impact of faster mobile connections, you might enjoy a recent fireside chat I had with Kalvin Bahia, Principal Economist at GSMA Intelligence – click here to watch our full discussion.
Want to learn more about the state of digital in 2022? Check out our full Digital 2022 Global Overview Report by clicking here.
Click here to see all of Simon’s articles, read his bio, and connect with him on social media.