One of the world’s leading broadband magazines, Cable, has released its 2018 global ranking report for broadband speed, which has Nigeria placed on the 156th position.
The report findings are based on more than one hundred and sixty-three million (163,000,000) speed tests conducted in 200 countries around the world. It focuses on average speed in each of these countries, with emphasis on how long it typically takes to download a 5GB High Definition (HD) movie.
Focus on Nigeria’s and other African countries’ rankings
Nigeria’s 2018 ranking marks a 154% decline compared to last year, having dropped 57 places from 99th position in 2017.
According to the report, Nigeria’s average broadband speed in 2018 is 1.86mb; a sharp decline from 3.15mb recorded in 2017. With this in perspective, the report went further to state that it would take an average of 6 hours, 7 minutes and 38 seconds to download a 5GB HD movie in the country.
Nigeria’s performance is poor compared to some other African countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda, all of whom occupied the 68th, 80th, 124th, 125th and 134th positions respectively.
Other African countries that ranked better than Nigeria are:
- Namibia – 135th position
- Burundi – 138th position
- Uganda – 144th position
- Zambia – 150th position and
- Tanzania – 153rd position
The reasons for the different performances
The report explains that the disparity in performance between countries is due to certain factors such as technological advancements and geographical remoteness.
Asides the aforementioned, other factors such as the territorial sizes of countries as well as their rate of economic development also contribute to each of the countries’ broadband speed rates.
“When it comes to internet provision, the situation varies both by country and region. Generally speaking though, you can apply the rule that the larger and less developed the nation is, the slower the internet access tends to be.
“The economy of Singapore, for example, relies heavily on digital infrastructure, while the country itself occupies a relatively small space. There is economic necessity, coupled with the relative ease of delivering high-speed connections across a small area.
Conversely, the economy of Chad suffers from geographical remoteness, drought and political turmoil, with agriculture its chief industry. It is also vast. There is therefore arguably no pressing economic necessity for high-speed internet, while the difficulty of delivering it would almost certainly exceed Chad’s GDP.” – Cable
Meanwhile, the top ten ranking countries in the world according to the report are Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Romania, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Hungary, and Jersey.
On the other hand, countries like Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Somalia, and Yemen are ranked among the worst.
The worldwide broadband speed report is published annually by Cable Magazine, using data collected from around the world by M-Lab. To read the full report, CLICK HERE.
