The latest worldwide broadband speed test comparison has been issued by cable.co.uk. This compares broadband speeds in 220 companies is a good way to track the advance of broadband speeds around the world while also seeing how the U.S. stacks up. The comparisons were compiled using 1.3 billion speed tests from M-Lab.

Worldwide broadband speeds continue to climb. The average worldwide broadband speed in 2023 was 93.6 Mbps, up from 72.1 Mbps in 2021 – and only 9.1 Mbps in 2018. That’s over a tenfold increase in worldwide average broadband speeds in five years. Only 34 countries had average speeds faster than the worldwide average, with the United Kingdom coming in 34^th with a speed of 93.6 Mbps.

The fastest average broadband speed comes from Jersey, an island nation off the coast of France, with an average speed of 264.5 Mbps. The next fastest countries are Liechtenstein, Macau, Iceland, Gibraltar, Andorra, and Luxembourg. It’s not hard to notice that these are all small countries where it’s much easier to bring fast broadband to everybody.

At the bottom of the list are Afghanistan and Yemen, with an average broadband speed of 1.7 Mbps. There are 48 countries on the list in 2023 with average broadband speeds under 10 Mbps. This is down from 67 countries in 2022 and 94 countries in 2021.

The U.S. is twelfth on the list, with an average speed of 136.5 Mbps. We often forget how much broadband speeds have improved in the country. In 2018 the U.S. ranked 20th with an average broadband speed of 25.9 Mbps. In 2018, the fastest broadband was in Singapore at 60.4 Mbps. Singapore today is 23^rd with an average broadband speed of 101.8 Mbps.

One of the most interesting items on the list is the average speed in China of 12.7 Mbps – 156^th on the list. We’ve heard from vendors and politicians for years how we can’t afford to lose the broadband battle with China. However, this speed seems unrealistically low. The China speed raises an interesting point about the study. The statistics include speed tests from every broadband technology from each country. In this country, that means combining speed tests from fiber, cable companies, fixed wireless, and cellular hot spots. The U.S. average speed comes from over 373 million speed tests. In China the statistic comes from only 323,000 speed tests. It’s fairly obvious that the China statistic doesn’t represent a very big slice of all of the broadband market in China. That might be due to a simple reason, such as people in China don’t use the M-Lab speed test.

As might be expected, the speed tests show that the fastest major countries are in North America, Europe and Asia. Canada is immediately below the U.S. with an average speed of 136.1 Mbps.

The African country with the fastest average speed is Rwanda, ranked 99, with a speed of 39.9 Mbps. But ten of the bottom twenty slowest speeds on the list are from sub-Saharan Africa. The fastest country in South America is Uruguay, ranked 20^th with an average speed of 111.5 Mbps.

Cable.co.uk has updated their comparison of worldwide broadband prices. Their report consists of a spreadsheet that compares broadband prices in 195 countries. If you didn’t know there were that many countries, many of the ones on the list are small island countries. The study considered the products offered by the major ISPs in each country. I assume they are using published prices and not some estimate of speeds that customers actually receive.

It’s not easy to compare broadband products because broadband speeds vary significantly around the world. The spreadsheet ranks countries by monthly price, expressed in US dollars, but you can use the spreadsheet to compare other factors. For example, looking at the cost per megabit provides a different perspective.

The US didn’t fare well in a comparison of overall pricing and came in at 119, with a monthly price for broadband at $67.69. This is down three places from last year. The US price was calculated using 25 ISP packages that had an average speed of 54 Mbps and a price per megabit of $1.26.

The cheapest broadband in the world is in Ukraine where the month price is US $5.00 with average download speed of 112 Mbps. To show how hard these comparisons are to make, the second cheapest broadband is in Sri Lanka with a monthly price of $US $5.56, but an average speed of only 11 Mbps, followed by Iran with a monthly price of US $8.20 per month, but a download speed of only 3 Mbps. The largest country at the top of the rankings is Russia, at number 4, where the average cost of broadband is US $9.77 per month with average speeds of 31 Mbps.

At the bottom of the list were two sub-Saharan countries: Mauritania with an average price of US $768.16 for 6 Mbps and Namibia with an average price of US $383.83 for 22 Mbps. Also at the bottom was Papua New Guinea with an average price of US $571.67 for 7 Mbps.

The US fares a little better when ranking by cost per megabit. With a price of $1.26 per megabit we’re at number 56. Number 1 on this comparison is Singapore with a price of US $0.03 per megabit, due to delivering an average speed of 1.6 Gbps for a price of US $50.43 per month. At the bottom of the list were two other sub-Saharan countries, Somalia and Niger that have average broadband speeds of less than 1 Mbps.

Finally, I compared countries by average Internet download speeds. The US came in at number 39 with an average speed of 54 Mbps. At the top of the list is Singapore with the 1.6 Gbps speed. Second is Jersey, in the Channel Islands off Normandy with a speed of 468 Mbps and Panama with an average speed of 273 Mbps.

Like all statistics there is a story go with all of the various countries. For example, China has an average broadband speed of 98 Mbps with an average price of US $41.29 per month. However, China is similar to the US and their data speed blends cities with gigabit speeds with smaller markets with much slower speeds. Among the countries with fast download speeds are places like Hong Kong, Bulgaria and Ireland where the government has set a priority and dedicated public money to building broadband infrastructure.

Since these comparisons are made using advertised prices and speeds, they don’t represent the total actual cost to consumers. For example, in this country some ISPs jack up the price of broadband by requiring an expensive monthly modem rental. In some markets in the US the ISPs deliver significantly slower speeds than advertised, making the products a lot more expensive on a per megabit basis. Many ISPs here also offer bundled discounts, making the prices lower than advertised. I’ve studied broadband prices in specific US markets and I know how hard it is to understand the real cost of broadband – and I’m sure these sorts of things are true in other countries as well. However, the average price of $67.69 for the US doesn’t seem out of line.

US broadband trends will change our rankings over the next few years. For example, prices by the big ISPs are on the increase, as witnessed by the recent $5 monthly increase by Charter for bundled broadband. Wall Street analysts all expect broadband prices in the US to now increase every year after a decade of stable prices. However, the cost per megabit ought to be tumbling here since the big cable companies recently increased customer speeds unilaterally – meaning millions of US customers now have broadband that is significantly faster than just a year ago.

Even with all of the issues of comparing broadband in countries with widely disparate conditions, this kind of comparison is useful. The main takeaway for me from this table is that most of the economic rivals of the US in Asia and Europe have faster broadband speeds than here, and lower monthly prices. Our trend is to increase broadband speeds, at least in urban areas, but prices are going to climb at the same time. If you look at broadband as a basic utility that’s necessary to be competitive, we aren’t stacking up very well.