Pakistan has fastest mobile internet speeds in South Asia: Ookla

LAHORE: Ookla, a global speed internet test index which owns Speedtest.com has rated Pakistan among the fastest in terms of average mobile broadband speed of 13.1 megabits per second in South Asia.

In descending order for South Asia, Myanmar mobile broadband speeds were recorded at 11.7, Nepal 11, Sri Lanka 9.3, India 8.8 and Bangladesh 4.97 respectively.

Ranking wise in South Asia, Pakistan was ranked at 89^th followed by Myanmar at 94^th, Sri Lanka 107^th, India 109^th and Bangladesh at 120 among 122 nations ranked by Ookla.

Norway was crowned at 1^st position for having the fastest mobile broadband speeds with 62.66 Mbps, then Netherlands with 53 Mbps, Iceland 52.78 Mbps, Singapore 51.5 Mbps and Malta with 50.46 Mbps.

Pakistan has seen a massive growth of 3G/4G users since its launch in early 2014 and the subscriber base is rising by 1 to 2 million every month. Increasing smartphone adoption is fueling demand for faster internet speeds as Pakistani’s embrace them and as local startup and entrepreneurial scene mushrooms.

Recently, Google at the launch of its Datally app in Pakistan had stated it would be among four nations from where the next billion internet users will come from. Pakistan user subscriber base of million broadband/smartphone users now stands around 50 million.

Google’s Asia Pacific Industry Head Khurram Jamali on launch of Datally app stated number of users watching video was growing globally by 60 percent yearly and social media users were rising by 35 percent annually. Also, he shared that 80 percent of users surfed the internet via their mobile phones.

Planning and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday said the government will soon be launching 5-G mobile broadband technology for commercial purposes.

Addressing a seminar on “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Business Opportunities”, organised by the Federal Ministry of Planning and Development, he said that the government is committed to technology-induced development across the country.

“It is in the very spirit that 5-G technology will soon be readily available to the people.” Iqbal, who is also the planning minister, said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project itself is in accordance with the vision of technology-induced development. Emphasizing that CPEC is a massive project, he said that political stability in the country and continuity of policies will very soon turn Pakistan into a global hub of economic, financial and commercial activities.