Mobile internet is incredibly important to Africans, with a high mobile penetration rate making mobile the major medium through which Africans connect to the internet.
Broadband, or fixed line internet, speeds via desktop or laptop computers are constantly improving throughout the continent, but it is on mobile that some of Africa’s top speeds may surprise people, with one East African nation in particular enjoying faster average mobile internet speeds than people in the U.S.
Content delivery network Akamai collected data from more than 130 countries to determine the fastest mobile speeds and rank them accordingly, while Open Signal produced similar research.
Here are the 9 African countries with the fastest mobile internet speeds.
Southern African nation Namibia is able to claim an average mobile internet speed of 3.14Mbps, with many of the people in the country accessing the internet for work and play via their devices.
8) Nigeria
With mobile internet speeds amounting to an average of 4.13Mbps, Nigerians are able to count on the continent’s eighth fastest mobile speeds. Nigeria is a huge mobile market, with the number of Nigerian mobile subscribers recently reaching 150 million, and the number of its internet users climbing to 97.2 million at penetration rates of 81 percent and 53 percent respectively.
7) Ghana
Mobile is how most Ghanaians get online, with many using their phones to produce work and inform themselves on a daily basis. These activities are enabled by average mobile speeds of around 4.81Mbps.
6) Tunisia
One of a number of North African nations on this list, Tunisia is able to offer mobile users internet speeds of around 7.21Mbps on average. While this does not compare favorably with the likes of Taiwan, New Zealand and Sweden, which have speeds of around 13Mbps, Tunisians still enjoy fairly fast mobile connections compared to most Africans.
5) Morocco
At 7.36Mbps, Morocco’s average internet speed on mobile is among the continent’s fastest, outshining the likes of Nigeria and Ghana on average. Number five on this list, Morocco is not far away from the speeds experienced by the nation with the fourth fastest mobile internet on the continent.
4) Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast has experienced impressive economic growth in recent years, and with it has come increased investment by mobile providers such as Orange and MTN, allowing the West African country to improve infrastructure and mobile internet speeds, with the current average estimated to be around 7.64Mbps.
3) Egypt
With average internet speeds via mobile of 7.75Mbps, Egypt ranks as the third fastest on the continent, and the overall fastest in North Africa. Mobile providers serving Egyptian users include Telecom Egypt, Orange Egypt, Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Misr.
2) South Africa
The second fastest mobile internet speeds on the African continent belong to South Africa. The country placed 48th globally in terms of mobile speeds, according to Open Signal research, with the average mobile speeds in the country clocking in at 9.93Mbps.
1) Kenya
Kenya has the world’s 14th-fastest mobile internet speed at 13.7Mbps, which is twice as fast as the global average and faster than speeds in the U.S. with an average of 10.7Mbps. Around 88 percent of Kenya’s population have access to the internet via their mobile phones, with cheaper data and the popularity of mobile money platforms like Mpesa helping to drive mobile speed gains.