Nepal’s Fixed broadband internet speed is the fastest in SAARC, leads India

The latest global broadband internet speed report by Ookla shows Nepal leading the SAARC region with the fastest internet speed ranking above India and others in the fixed-broadband category. As per the July report, Nepal’s mobile broadband is less encouraging however, the fiber internet indicator is on a satisfying trajectory.

The report mentions fiber internet speed in 182 countries has Nepal at 82nd position with 55.57 Mbps download speed. The upload speed and latency are shown to be 50.03 Mbps and 5 ms respectively which should also satisfy many as upload seems to be much less than download. The speed war and the continuous high-speed packages have rocketed Nepal’s internet speed in the last two years. The growing minimum download speed is a reflection of it.

Check out: How to check internet speed on your PC or mobile?

Nepal gains ground in Fiber Broadband

Nepal’s latest fiber broadband indicator is a continuously improving trend in terms of speed. In fact, as per this report, Nepal has dropped India to the second in the SAARC region.

Among the SAARC members, Nepal leads the table with 55.57 Mbps internet speed while globally it stays at 82nd. India which has led the leaderboard for so long is currently trailing Nepal at 2nd with 5.42 Mbps fiber internet speed. Globally, the largest SAAR country stays 85th. Bangladesh has 37.92 Mbps fixed-line broadband speed at 3rd in SAARC and globally at 106th. Sri Lanka is at 4th with 19.53 Mbps speed. Maldives follows at 5th with 9.84 Mbps speed. The island nation is at 158th globally in the table.

Pakistan and Bhutan have 11.30 Mbps and 10.77 Mbps download speeds and are in the 6th and 7th ranking respectively. Afghanistan has the slowest speed in the SAARC region clocking 2.72 Mbps and globally stays 181st just ahead of Cuba at 182nd. Nepal has even left behind a first-world country Australia which has 53.88 Mbps speed and ranks two positions below Nepal at 84th. If you think your internet speed is slow, there are many other countries with lower speeds than ours. We thank Nepal’s top ISPs for upping their internet speed for this.

Also read: How to Solve Common Broadband Internet Issues at Home?

Mobile internet leaves more to desire

While the fiber network’s blazingly fast internet has transformed Nepal’s home WiFi internet experience, mobile broadband continues to disappoint. The latest Ookla report shows Nepal lurching at 127th in global ranking with 13.96 Mbps download and 9.48 Mbps upload speed. The frustrating latency of 22 ms is another area mobile service providers must consider.

To compare, India sits at 53rd rank globally in mobile internet speed with 43.76 Mbps which is over 3x faster than Nepal’s.

Globally, Gulf countries dominated the top ranks in mobile internet speed. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) topped the mobile broadband internet speed ranking with a bludgeoning 205.77 Mbps download speed. Qatar followed 2nd with 186.35 Mbps speed. Kuwait, another Gulf nation ranked 3rd with 160.87 Mbps download speed. South American country Uruguay stood 4th with 149.08 Mbps download speed while Asian country South Korea came at 5th with 140.49 Mbps download speed.

To compare, UAE’s mobile internet dwards Nepal’s by over 14 times. But it’s also fair to say that some of these countries such as South Korea are backed by the next-generation 5G network which escalates the mobile broadband speed from 4G. But nonetheless, 4G can also provide far better speed than the below 14 Mbps reported by Ookla. Carrier Aggregation and sufficient and quality infrastructure would surely improve mobile broadband performance.

Both Nepal Telecom and Ncell have greatly expanded their 4G network across the country. However, reports such as this suggest that there is a also need to look at quality improvement instead of extending the coverage. Check out: The State of 4G Speed in Nepal and its Influencing Factors

Which speed do you get on your mobile and home WiFi broadband connection? Are you satisfied or want improvement? You can share in the comments below.