Is it even a new year if we’re not looking back over the previous one analysing every little thing? What was done well? What could be improved upon? What do we hope the new yera will bring? 

The tech world is really no different. We were interested to look back on how the UK performed in comparison with the rest of the world when it came to fixed broadband and mobile broadband (4G and 5G) speeds during 2023 and how that compared to the previous year. 

How does the UK compare to the rest of the world when it comes to fixed line and mobile broadband?

If you’re here for the fast answer: In a ranking of the top fastest countries, the UK was 51st (a fall from 44th during 2022) for mobile broadband and came 56th for fixed lines.

You can see the full report over at www.Speedtest.net from Ookla. This service benchmarks internet connections from around the world by publicly tracking the data available. 

Whilst it remains true that mobile and fixed line broadband can of course be affected by other factors within each individual connection (like slow Wi-Fi between the router and user device, local network congestion, package choice by individual consumers, the server performance of speedtest.net itself) this is also true for all the countries included so it shouldn’t be enough to affect the results significantly. 

FAQ’s on the Data

When is the speedtest.net data collected?

The data is collected in November each year. 

What average is used for the data speeds?

The figures are all ‘median‘ averages.

What is the main differentiator for speeds between countries?

The main differentiator for speeds between countries tends to stem from the balance between network availability and the take-up of faster connection types. 

Countries will rank highest in the table when they have a high coverage of gigabit-capable broadband networks and/ or strong 5G mobile services (with plenty of radio spectrum to harness).

How are the UK doing when it comes to mobile and fixed line broadband?

Over the past year we’ve seen a consistently strong improvement in terms of the availability of faster fixed and mobile networks here in the UK. 

It was recently revealed by Ofcom that 1Gbps capable fixed gigabit broadband networks had reached 78% (up from 70% in 2022), and full fibre / FTTP lines were at 57% (up from 42%).

5G mobile is now available from at least one mobile network operator in approximately 85-93% of UK premises (which is up from 67-78% in 2022). 

What Were the Top 50 Fastest Countries for Broadband in 2023?

During 2023, across the world we have seen a continued improvement in fixed and mobile broadband speeds.

Unfortunately, despite big improvements in the UK in terms of full fibre and 5G coverage, we are still quite low down on the rankings compared with other countries who are seemingly able to improve their real-world performance at a faster (or at least similar) pace. 

What’s the issue we’re facing in the UK? It could be partly down to the take-up of full fibre and gigabit-capable broadband lines in the UK. We are still in quite an early phase of adoption – Typically it takes 2-3 year for growth and adoption to stabilise for new networks. 

You might be interested in what country came top for fastest download speeds for fixed line and mobile broadband. The tables and charts below illustrate the ranking of the top 50 fastest countries in the world for fixed and mobile broadband. 

Fastest 50 Countries for Fixed Broadband Speed (DL) in 2023
Country (2023)	Mbps	Country (2022)	Mbps
Singapore	264.15	Singapore	219.57
Hong Kong (SAR)	263.07	Chile	219.34
Chile	248.65	China	203.5
United Arab Emirates	235.72	Hong Kong (SAR)	198.24
China	230.39	Thailand	196.46
Thailand	218.94	United States	182.63
United States	215.72	Denmark	174.67
Denmark	206.8	United Arab Emirates	166.53
Iceland	204.8	Japan	165.53
France	200.99	Macau (SAR)	159.8
Romania	191.36	Spain	157.31
Spain	189.37	Romania	155.07
Monaco	187.49	Switzerland	143.46
Switzerland	187.48	Monaco	142.03
Netherlands	177.88	France	139.73
Japan	170.29	New Zealand	134.19
Canada	165.67	Canada	127.54
New Zealand	163.16	Hungary	119.36
Macau (SAR)	160.52	Taiwan	119.03
Taiwan	157.55	Liechtenstein	118.07
Andorra	156.9	Netherlands	117.74
Kuwait	153.58	Portugal	116.57
Liechtenstein	152.22	Andorra	115.39
Portugal	150.45	Panama	110.96
Hungary	149.85	Kuwait	110.07
Panama	148.76	Norway	106.3
Israel	144.81	Moldova	105.22
Uruguay	143.06	Sweden	105.01
South Korea	139.83	South Korea	99.87
Brazil	136.92	Uruguay	97.48
Poland	133.35	Brazil	95.95
Sweden	127.33	Poland	95.59
Qatar	127.04	Israel	95.54
Norway	123.63	Luxembourg	93.95
Luxembourg	117.66	Finland	93.79
Colombia	111.65	Malta	92.27
Malaysia	110.8	Lithuania	91.5
Jordan	109.58	Malaysia	90.24
Moldova	108.2	Saint Lucia	87.67
Malta	108.19	Qatar	87.33
Vietnam	104.08	Colombia	87.24
Lithuania	103.26	Belgium	85.31
Finland	102.43	Saudi Arabia	85.1
Saudi Arabia	102.41	Trinidad and Tobago	82.94
Trinidad and Tobago	100.68	Barbados	81.92
Saint Lucia	99.96	Dominica	79.83
Ireland	94.62	Vietnam	78.87
Peru	93.52	Slovenia	78.81
Barbados	92.96	Germany	77.34
Philippines	91.08	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	76.86

Country (2023)	Mbps	Country (2022)	Mbps
United Arab Emirates	269.41	United Arab Emirates	138.82
Qatar	206.8	Norway	129.81
Kuwait	191.74	Qatar	126.03
China	164.14	South Korea	125.17
Macau (SAR)	155.75	China	113.5
Norway	146.02	Netherlands	109.45
South Korea	145.25	Denmark	109.29
Denmark	143.63	Bulgaria	106.88
Bulgaria	142.07	Kuwait	102.73
Iceland	139.52	Saudi Arabia	97.81
Netherlands	119.34	Brunei	97.37
Saudi Arabia	106.01	Australia	87.76
United States	103.69	Luxembourg	83.14
Australia	97.44	Switzerland	82.91
Bahrain	97.19	Bahrain	82.67
Sweden	97.07	Sweden	82.1
Finland	95.48	Finland	76.27
Croatia	89.51	Canada	74.77
Singapore	89.45	Croatia	74.35
Switzerland	89.45	Singapore	74.19
Canada	87.85	Macau (SAR)	73.67
Luxembourg	85.76	North Macedonia	73.62
Brunei	85.13	United States	72.34
Lithuania	84.8	Lithuania	67.1
France	82.6	Cyprus	66.33
North Macedonia	81.98	Taiwan	65.93
Austria	78.92	New Zealand	63.15
India	75.86	Portugal	62.19
Taiwan	75.77	Austria	61.25
Portugal	75.71	Hong Kong (SAR)	61.12
Greece	72.45	Maldives	61.09
New Zealand	72.32	Greece	60.57
Estonia	72.07	France	60.54
Hong Kong (SAR)	69.59	Belgium	59.68
Belgium	68.54	Estonia	58.59
Maldives	67.59	Montenegro	57.36
Cyprus	67.37	Germany	57.27
Malaysia	66.84	Slovenia	54.3
Oman	66.02	Malta	50.68
Uruguay	66	Oman	50.03
Germany	64.74	Serbia	47.78
Latvia	64.42	Suriname	46.09
Malta	61.03	Latvia	45.99
Slovenia	60.52	United Kingdom	45.57
Czechia	56.11	Slovakia	43.95
Montenegro	53.16	Iran	42.95
Serbia	52.41	Japan	42.93
Romania	50.95	Czechia	42.24
Albania	50.06	Hungary	42.11
Brazil	47.98	Romania	40.62

Performance Categories (Download)	2023	2022
UK Country Rank for Fixed Line	56th	56th
Global Latency – Fixed Line	9ms	10ms
Global Upload – Fixed Line	40.45Mbps	31.16Mbps
Global Download – Fixed Line	87.79Mbps	72.40Mbps
UK Latency – Fixed Line	13ms	14ms
UK Upload – Fixed Line	24.58Mbps	18.55Mbps
UK Download – Fixed Line	84.93Mbps	69.76Mbps
Performance Categories (Upload)	2023	2022
UK Country Rank for Mobile	51st	44th
Global Latency – Mobile	27ms	28ms
Global Upload – Mobile	11.03Mbps	9.05Mbps
Global Download – Mobile	48.47Mbps	33.43Mbps
UK Latency – Mobile	34ms	36ms
UK Upload – Mobile	7.24Mbps	7.33Mbps
UK Download – Mobile	47.65Mbps	45.57Mbps