Singapore Leading the world in broadband internet: Reports

Australia is a wealthy, advanced country, yet its broadband internet is curiously slow. After previously being ranked below Kenya, a new global internet index by Speedtest has Australia ranked 68th in the world.

According to the index, Australia’s internet is more sluggish than Kazakhstan’s (64th), Kosovo’s (61st) and Montenegro’s (60th). This is despite Australia having a gross domestic product almost 10 times that of those three countries combined.

The US stopped short of cracking the top 10, with a ranking of 11. (Sweden, No. 10, had an average download speed of 131.13Mbps, very slightly above the US’ 130.79Mbps.)

The UK came in at No. 45, about 3 Mbps faster than Russia. Leading the world’s broadband internet in Singapore, with average download speeds of just over 200Mbps.

Like most things, Australia’s internet has been slowed down by politics. In 2007 the country’s government greenlit the National Broadband Network (NBN), an infrastructure project that would see fiber cables deliver download speeds of over 100Mbps straight to people’s houses.

Now, 13 years, over AU$50 billion ($34 billion) and several government changes later, the average download speeds in Australia are 41.78Mbps, according to Speedtest.

Mobile internet is a different game, though. There Australia is ranked 6th in the world (67.66Mbps), far above the US (36th, 41Mbps), the UK (48th, 35.57Mbps) and yes, Kazakhstan (101st, 19.59Mbps). South Korea, as always, tops mobile internet. Its average mobile download speed is over 103Mbps.