RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Despite the persistent flood of advertising across all media about the high-speed promises for 5G and more 5G capable phones – including iPhones – the US continues to lag many other countries in performance according to new data from research firm Ookla. But there is improvement.
Its “Speedtest” for December ranks the US 20th with an average download speed of 67.33 megabits per second.
That’s not even half the speed available in Qatar (No. 1), the United Arab Emirates (No. 2) and South Korea (No. 3).
However, the US is setting a fast pace for 5G deployments.
Ookla reports more than 7,800 5G deployments across the US in the third quarter of 2020, an amazing 21,566% increase year-over-year. Germany was a distance second at 2,417 – a jump of 11,460%.
Fourth quarter data is not yet available.
The US did improve two spots for overall speed from the most recent report.
Other countries/markets ahead of the US include:
- China
- Australia
- Kuwai
- Saudi Arabia
- Norway
- Netherlands
- Canada
- Switzerland
- Luxemberg
- Bulgaria
- New Zealand
- Denmark
- Taiwan
- Bahrain
- Hong Kong
- Sweden
