Senegal and Mali beat Kenya in internet speed
Business
By
Moses Omusolo
| Oct 21, 2021
Mali, whose mobile internet speed now ranks at position 89, registered 29.79Mbps. [Courtesy]
Senegal and Mali now have the fastest internet speeds in Africa, with Kenya falling below several other countries, a new ranking shows.
The Speedtest Global Index shows that Kenya has relinquished its position to Senegal, whose fixed broadband speed is ranked at position 105 globally this year. The country registered speeds of 35.01 Megabits per second (Mbps).
Mali, whose mobile internet speed now ranks at position 89, registered 29.79Mbps.
Kenya now ranks twelfth on the continent in broadband at 19.35Mbps, lower than its mobile internet speed of 22.14 Mbps, ranking at position nine.
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This compares to five years ago when Akamai’s State of the Internet report 2016 ranked the country’s internet speed as the fastest in Africa and the Middle East.
Though Kenya’s data speed then averaged 15Mbps, it was better than Israel at 14.4Mbps, South Africa at 6.6Mbps, and Morocco and Nigeria’s at 5.2Mbps and 4.1Mbps respectively.
According to the new data, Ethiopia comes second in Africa on mobile internet speeds at 26.17Mbps while Angola takes the third spot with internet speeds averaging 25.87Mbps.
Mozambique and Egypt hold the fourth and fifth spots in Africa, with the former’s mobile internet speeds reaching 25.03Mbps while the latter’s stand at 24.95Mbps.
On the fixed broadband front, Cape Verde posting 26.94 Mbps to rank second to Senegal. Kenya also lags behind Liberia, which was ranked third in Africa with broadband speeds of 25.68Mbps.
Closing the top five slots on broadband are Burkina Faso and Lesotho with speeds of 25.54Mbps and 24.64Mbps respectively.
Tanzania and Namibia, according to the new ranking, are giving Kenya a run for its money with broadband speeds hitting 19.77Mbps and 19.58Mbps respectively.
Ruling the globe on mobile internet speeds is the United Arab Emirates with 238.06Mbps, followed by South Korea at 202.61Mbps.
Monaco dominates the broadband ranking at 261.82Mbps while Singapore, which dropped one spot from last year, still posted impressive broadband speeds of 255.83 Mbps.