Singapore beats Hong Kong to retain No 1 spot globally for fixed broadband speed

Singapore beat Hong Kong to top the charts for the fastest fixed broadband speeds globally for the 12th time in a row.

Singapore beat 132 countries and regions in Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index for July to emerge No. 1 for fixed broadband speeds. The city state had an average download speed of 181.47 Mbps, more than three times the global average download speed of 46.41 Mbps.

Hong Kong came second for the second time in a row, with speeds of 145.65 Mbps, ahead of Iceland, Romania and South Korea, which ranked third, fourth and fifth respectively. Mainland China ranked 19th, down two places from the previous month, with average download speeds clocking in at 77.61 Mbps.

The global speed test rankings are a monthly test conducted by Ookla, a US-based company that specialises in internet testing and analysis. To be included in its Speedtest Global Index, countries and regions must have over 3,333 unique user test results for fixed broadband and more than 670 unique user test results for mobile in the reported month.

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The results from the index are based on speed tests done using Ookla’s Speedtest.net platform, which tells users their current download and upload speeds.

While Singapore may top the world in terms of broadband speeds, it still lags behind Hong Kong when it comes to broadband penetration, ranking 29th with a penetration rate of 26.1 per cent compared to Hong Kong’s ranking of 20th, with a penetration rate of 31.6 per cent, according to data compiled by the International Telecommunication Union.

China ranks No. 1 by the total number of broadband internet subscriptions, but falls to 66 when it comes to the penetration rate. The Chinese government has ambitious plans to bring broadband internet coverage to all corners of the country to bridge the digital divide between China’s rural areas and its cities, and plans to cover 98 per cent of its “poor villages” by 2020.

In terms of the mobile internet, Singapore still has some way to go. Qatar, Norway and United Arab Emirates took the top three spots respectively for the month of July in Ookla’s tests in mobile internet speeds, with Singapore coming in fourth with an average mobile download speed of 52.84 Mbps. The global average was 22.81 Mbps.

Hong Kong ranked 42nd for average mobile download speed with 29.06 Mbps, behind mainland China (30.25 Mbps) which came in at 37th.