Average internet speed by country

Singapore has the fastest fixed broadband and the United Arab Emirates the fastest mobile internet, according to Ookla's Speedtest Global Index for September 2026. Singapore's median fixed download is about 668 Mbps. The global fixed median on the same page is about 260 Mbps, so the leader runs at roughly two and a half times the world's typical connection.

The fastest countries for fixed broadband

Fixed broadband means home and office connections such as fiber, cable and DSL. In Ookla's September 2026 index, the top five by median download are:

1. Singapore, about 668 Mbps
2. France, about 536 Mbps
3. Switzerland, about 489 Mbps
4. Chile, about 473 Mbps
5. Hong Kong, about 470 Mbps

The leaders have a lot of fiber to the home, and several are small, dense places where wiring every building is cheaper per person. The United States ranks around tenth on the same list; average internet speed in the US covers it in detail. For the UK, see average broadband speed in the UK, which also explains Ofcom's own figures.

The fastest countries for mobile

Mobile rankings look different, because they depend on spectrum, 5G rollout and how many people share each cell. The September 2026 mobile leaders are:

1. United Arab Emirates, about 761 Mbps
2. Qatar, about 600 Mbps
3. Kuwait, about 461 Mbps
4. South Korea, about 374 Mbps
5. Vietnam, about 366 Mbps

The global mobile median is about 203 Mbps down and 24 Mbps up. Mobile upload is far lower than download almost everywhere, which matters if you post video from your phone.

A note on Ookla's figures

The Global Index page also shows a second, lower set of global figures (about 135 Mbps fixed and 110 Mbps mobile) and doesn't clearly label what separates the two views. The countries at the top are the same in both. The numbers above come from the main view the page loads first. Treat them as approximate and check the live index, which Ookla updates monthly. Ookla also restricts commercial reuse of its data, so the full table lives on its site, not here.

Why rankings differ between sources

Different sources can disagree on both the speed and the order of countries. Each one measures something slightly different.

Who runs the test. Ookla's data comes from people who chose to run Speedtest. People test when something feels wrong, or when they've just upgraded, and neither group is a random sample of a country.

How the test works. Ookla's test opens several connections at once to measure the most a line can carry. M-Lab's NDT test uses a single connection, which shows how one ordinary transfer performs. A single-stream test can report lower speeds on the same line. Neither method is wrong; they answer different questions.

What counts as "fixed". Ookla's about page says fixed broadband includes results from phones on Wi-Fi. A slow Wi-Fi link in a large share of homes pulls a country's fixed median down, even if the lines themselves are fast.

Which phones count. Since January 2025, Ookla's mobile rankings only use results from phones with modern chipsets, leaving out older handsets that can't use the newest network features.

The time window. Ookla reports a rolling three months of data, not a single month, and only includes a country when it has enough tests for a precise median. A new fiber rollout shows up gradually.

Median, not average. Ookla reports the median, the middle result. A mean would be pulled up by a small number of very fast lines. "Average speed" in news headlines usually means the median.

Why speed tests show different results covers the same effects on your own connection.

What a country median tells you

A national median is a useful snapshot of infrastructure. It tells you little about your own line. One street may have gigabit fiber while the next has DSL, and the median mixes both. It also blends cheap plans with expensive ones.

For your own connection, compare three numbers:

• Your plan's speed, from your bill or the provider's broadband label.
• Your measured speed, from a wired test at a quiet time.
• What your household needs. For most homes that's far below the national leaders. What is a good internet speed breaks it down by household.

Where you stand

Run the SpeedMetric speed test on a computer connected by Ethernet, then compare the download with your plan rather than with Singapore. If your wired result is far below the plan, follow the slow internet debug steps before you call your provider. If it matches the plan but still feels slow, the plan may be too small for your household, whatever your country's ranking says.