The speeds of both mobile and fixed wireless internet declined in May 2023, after a slight increase in the previous month, according to the Speedtest web service’s latest survey on global internet speed.
Data released by Speedtest.net show Iran’s internet speed (according to the median index) settled one place lower for fixed wireless internet while that of mobile fell two places compared to the previous month.
The website used two median and mean (average) indicators to measure the ranking and quality of internet worldwide. The mean index is the average, but the median is the middle point of statistical data. It claims that global rankings are reported based on median download speed “to best reflect the speeds a user is likely to experience in a market.”
Iran’s fixed internet speed ranked 146th (out of 181 countries) while mobile internet speed was at 64th place (out of 140 countries) in May.
Median fixed internet download speed is currently 12.60 megabits per second (Mbps), upload speed is 2.61 Mbps and latency is 29 milliseconds. This is while the median mobile internet download speed is 35.68 Mbps, upload speed is 10.47 Mbps and latency is 29 milliseconds.
According to Speedtest, the median global mobile internet download speed is 42.3 Mbps, upload speed is 10.30 Mbps and latency is 28 milliseconds. On fixed internet, download speed is 79.28 Mbps, upload speed is 35.54 Mbps and latency is 9 milliseconds.
The UAE’s median mobile internet download speed stood at 181.79 Mbps in May to rank first in the world. It was followed by Qatar with 164.86 Mbps, Norway with 146.15 Mbps, Kuwait with 136.75 Mbps, Denmark with 127.13 Mbps, Macau with 123.15 Mbps, South Korea with 114.66 Mbps, China with 110.39 Mbps, the Netherlands with 106.12 Mbps and Sweden with 98.58 Mbps.
For median fixed internet speed, Singapore ranked first with 241.35 Mbps.
Chile with 223.21 Mbps, the UAE with 220.61 Mbps, China with 218.8 Mbps, Hong Kong with 213.14 Mbps, the US with 203.31 Mbps, Thailand with 202.88 Mbps, Denmark with 199.62 Mbps, Spain with 185.65 Mbps and Romania with 176.33 Mbps came next.
The Iranian government has launched a fiber optic project to improve the quality of fixed internet and eliminate the backlog of internet registration by expanding facilities for users and operators.
Iran’s Internet Inflationary
Iran’s internet affordability declined significantly in 2022 compared with 2021, according to a report published by Surfshark.
In its latest report called 2022 Digital Quality of Life Index, the Netherlands-based company had surveyed 117 countries where 92% of the world’s population live. The survey indexes each country according to five pillars that impact a population’s overall digital quality of life, namely internet affordability, internet quality, electronic infrastructure, electronic security and electronic government.
For each pillar, countries are given points and positions, and finally, based on these points, the digital quality of life index of each country is determined, Digiato (a Persian website that covers technology news) reported.
Iran ranked 84th in the world in 2022 with 0.3478 (from the maximum score of 1), which indicate that it fell one notch lower compared with 2021. Its rank among 34 Asian countries was 24th.
According to the report, Israel, Denmark, Germany, France and Sweden secured the highest DQL ranks in the world.
Although many people claim that Iran has cheap internet by comparing the USD price of mobile and fixed internet in Iran with that of other countries, the survey shows that Iran’s internet affordability is not among the top-performing countries.
Iran’s internet affordability index ranked 47th in the world with 0.07, as it declined by 16 places compared with 0.1 in 2021.
The affordability of the internet is based on two factors of affording “the cheapest mobile internet” and “the cheapest broadband internet.”
Accordingly, an Iranian citizen must work 22 minutes to afford the cheapest mobile internet. Iran’s rank in this index is 101st with 1,191 seconds, down 27 places compared with the year before.
An Iranian needs to work 122 minutes to afford the cheapest broadband internet and Iran was ranked 37th in this index in 2022, down 10 positions compared with 2021.
The report indicates that Iran’s internet quality increased in 2022 and the country ranked 90th with 0.29 compared with 0.4 in 2021.
Internet quality is measured based on speed, stability and speed improvement of mobile and broadband internet.
Surfshark reports that Iran’s mobile internet speed stood at 33.83 Mbps in 2022, while that of broadband internet hit 22 Mbps.
Iran’s rank in terms of electronic infrastructure stood at 49th with 0.74, showing an improvement of 19 points compared with 2021.
The country’s electronic security rank had fallen by 20 places from 93rd to 113th (among 117 countries) in 2022.
However, its rank in operating an electronic government improved in 2022 by 2 points from 81st in 2021 to 79th in 2022.
