UAE, Saudi top list of 5G download speeds globally

In the 5G race, VPN Mentor collated information around research done around this based on several research tools including information from SpeedTest field research that undertook 4.3 million tests in Q3 2020. The download test shows that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are the top two with network speeds of 959.39Mbps and 921.11Mbps respectively with Qatar in sixth place, followed by Bahrain in ninth, and Kuwait in eleventh. While UAE has the fastest download speeds, Saudi Arabia has the largest gap between 4G and 5G speeds.

Speeds won’t be relevant for most users without regional coverage. Saudi Arabia has only 69 regional nodes, of which 18 are within Mecca and the capital Riyadh. Most of the country isn’t covered and has to settle for 4G networks. In the rest of the GCC, the UAE has 19, Kuwait 154, Bahrain has 49, Oman 53 and Qatar has 26 regional nodes.

Some nations made more efforts to help local carriers push 5G forward to achieve faster adoption. Currently, China has the widest adoption, with 18.9 percent of all measured mobile results according to Ookla. The second place goes to South Korea, and the third to Hong Kong.

The fast growth of U.S carrier deployment gives North America the first place, with Europe close behind. While China has declared impressive 5G growth plans for the near future, the rest of Asia isn’t as diligent, which leaves this region in third place. The Middle East with 327 5G networks is next in line.

The current 5th Generation of mobile device networking is unfolding faster than ever, promising download, upload, and latency speeds 10 to 100 times faster than the current 4G network with implications for commercial and industrial applications in manufacturing, healthcare, utilities, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The pandemic hasn’t impacted the 5G networks’ rapid deployment around the world.

Current 5G networks promise speeds of up to 1GB per second (1Gbps), and trials show such speeds could almost be reached in the field. But most 5G users won’t get 1Gbps, or even come close. This is because of the difference between Top Speed (the best possible speed a user can achieve within a network, in optimal connection, with no range or traffic load issues, using an optimal device) and True Speed (what users usually get).

Check out the full report to see how other countries and regions are doing in terms of 5G deployment.