Kenya has the world’s 14th-fastest mobile internet speed, according to a report from the content delivery network Akamai, which collects data from more 130 countries.
At 13.7 megabits per second, Kenya’s average data connection speed in the first quarter of 2017 was almost twice as fast as the global average. Kenya also beats the United States, ranked 28th with an average speed of 10.7 mbps, and South Korea, home to the fastest average speed in fixed internet connection.
As much as 88% of Kenya’s population access the internet through their phones, thanks to cheaper data plans and the ubiquitous use of mobile money platforms like Mpesa.
In terms of average fixed line internet connection speeds, Kenya ranks above its peers in Sub-Saharan Africa. (The report groups the Middle East and Africa together.) In 2013, Kenya launched its “National Broadband Strategy” to extend fiber optic cables across the country, encourage more local content online, and install ICT centers at universities. Broadband penetration now covers as much as 30% of the country, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya
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NostalgiaSchmaltz on August 10th, 2017 at 02:52 UTC »
A lot of countries have faster mobile internet than the US, due to the mobile carriers here being assholes.
Leprecon on August 10th, 2017 at 02:31 UTC »
I travelled to the US with someone in the telecoms industry from Finland and he told me some realy interesting things about the US. One thing that happens is cell towers in the US are usually a lot shorter than elsewhere. This leads to needing more towers at a more regular interval and more equipment needed because there are more towers. This is very inefficient and expensive, as the thing that costs little is making the tower higher and the thing that cost a lot is buying more base stations.
This is done for two reasons.
Locals get to decide the tower height because for some reason they are involved and they never want tall towers. In other countries the locals have little to no say and telecoms operations might even be partly government planned. The towers aren't built by the telecom companies themselves. The telecom companies lease them. They get charged based on the height of the tower. The pricing scheme makes it that the thing which should be more costly (building lots of small towers) is actually cheaper than the alternative (building fewer, better towers). This is because the companies making the towers prefer actually being in the business of constantly making towers.It is really a case of "lets be inefficient and make some money" compounded with a bit of "people should be free to make decisions against their best interests".
Note Finland has half the population density of the US and is nr 3 in the list in the article.
scott003 on August 9th, 2017 at 23:40 UTC »
"So fast they'll deport you back to.. Kenya!"