OpenSignal, not long ago, furnished its quarterly report on the 4G network data which published data measured between October 1, 2017, and December 29, 2017, related to scaling of 4G network in many countries. The State of LTE February 2018 edition remarked that even though the 4G network expansion was increasing with each quarter, the speed wasn’t necessarily going up. The report also published some India specific insight and we got to know that the 4G network coverage in the country went up from 84.03% to 86.26%, but India also secured the last position in terms of LTE speed and also the numbers slipped down from 6.07 Mbps to 6.13 Mbps which was the speed last quarter. South Korea and Singapore remained the top countries with 45.9 Mbps and 46.6 Mbps average speeds respectively. Even though there was a slight decline in speeds in top countries, the global average went up from 16.2 Mbps to 16.6 Mbps owing to 4G network expansion in developing countries. This test which encompassed results from 77 countries also furnished that 50 countries scored more than 70% in 4G availability, a number which stood at 33 just six months ago. OpenSignal also shared their thoughts on the report which came out on February 20 this year saying “It’s a sign that 4G has reached maturity in many more countries.”
OpenSignal conducted this test in 77 countries, and during the period, 50 countries out of the total countries had 4G availability scores above 70%, compared to 33 countries just six months ago. This essentially converts to 4G users in those 50 countries were able to latch onto an LTE signal in more than seven out of every ten attempts. "It's a sign that 4G has reached maturity in many more countries," said OpenSignal.
OpenSignal also compared the average download connection speed globally of the major wireless network technologies. The average 2G network speed across the country is 0.1 Mbps, 3G network speed is 4.4 Mbps, 4G/LTE speed is 16.6 Mbps, and average Wi-Fi speed is 9.9 Mbps.
It is sad to see India at the bottom of the list of average 4G speeds, but that is how it goes. With a rank of 14 in the 4G network availability, India easily would have been in the top 15 countries list. Alongside India, other countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Algeria also averaged less than 10 Mbps speed.
