South Africa is at number 114 on the 2024 Broadband Speed League of 229 countries, with an average speed of 45.42Mbps,.
This is according to an analysis of around 1.5 billion broadband speed tests worldwide, which reveals Iceland has the fastest broadband in the world.
The research was designed and compiled by Cable.co.uk, and the data gathered by M-Lab.
Fifty countries were measured in second-slowest region Sub-Saharan Africa, which averaged a download speed of 14.99Mbps overall. According to Cable.co.uk, all but two of the countries found themselves in the slowest half of the league table.
It notes that going against the trend somewhat were Réunion (63.29Mbps, 75th), South Africa (45.42Mbps, 114th) and Eswatini (37.23Mbps, 120th).
Meanwhile, Sudan (4.02Mbps, 223rd), Central African Republic (4.08Mbps, 222nd) and Ethiopia (4.45Mbps, 221st) all fell among the slowest 10 countries in the world for average network speed.
Northern Africa recorded the slowest overall internet speeds as a collective region, with an average speed of just 12.52Mbps, says the report.
Morocco (19.61Mbps, 150th), Egypt (12.64Mbps, 181st) and Algeria (12.35Mbps, 183rd) offered the fastest speeds in the region. Libya (8.37Mbps) recorded the slowest speed in 195th place, followed by Mauritania (10.94Mbps, 190th) and Tunisia (11.18Mbps, 189th).
Some 31 of the top 50 fastest-performing countries are in Europe (Eastern, Western and Baltics), with six in Asia (ex-Near East), three in the Caribbean region, three in South America, three in Northern America, three in the Near East and one in Oceania.
By contrast, Cable notes that 30 of the 50 slowest-performing countries are located in Sub-Saharan or Northern Africa, six are in Asia (ex-Near East), one is in South America, four are in the Near East, three are in the CIS (former USSR) region, five are in Oceania and one is in the Caribbean region.
It adds that 35 countries failed to achieve average speeds of 10Mbps or greater − the speed deemed by UK telecoms watchdog Ofcom to be the minimum required to cope with the needs of a typical family or small business. This is down from 48 countries in 2023, 67 countries in 2022 and 94 countries in 2021, indicating significant speed improvements are ongoing in many parts of the world.
Twenty-eight countries were measured in the Asia (ex-Near East) region, which clocked in a regional average speed of 57.24Mbps.
Cable reveals the fastest average speeds were measured in Macau (234.74Mbps, 3rd), South Korea (172.53Mbps, 11th) and Japan (139.53Mbps, 23rd). British Indian Ocean Territory (2.38Mbps, 229th, last place), Afghanistan (3.11Mbps, 224th) and Timor-Leste (6.00Mbps, 211th) were the slowest in the region.
Five countries were measured in Northern America, all of which were in the top half of the table. The region as a whole has an average speed of 104.18Mbps.
The US (161.97Mbps, 12th) led the region, with Canada (152.25Mbps, 17th) coming a close second and Bermuda (107.40Mbps, 37th) in third place. Meanwhile, Greenland (42.69Mbps, 111th) was the slowest in the region, followed by Saint Pierre and Miquelon (56.61Mbps, 85th).
All 29 countries measured in Western Europe were in the top half of the table, with nine of them in the top 10. The regional average speed of 138.47Mbps makes it the fastest of the 13 global regions overall, says the report.
High average speeds were measured for regional top-three Iceland (279.55Mbps, fastest in the world), Jersey (273.51Mbps, second) and Liechtenstein (222.98Mbps, 4th). The slowest places in the region were Vatican City (51.60Mbps, 94th), Faroe Islands (56.61Mbps, 84th) and Åland Islands (64.28Mbps, 74th).
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