KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — Malaysia’s 4G mobile internet service is among the slowest of 88 countries surveyed, according to a report by UK-based wireless coverage mapping specialist OpenSignal today.
The report titled “The State of LTE” stated that the average speed of a 4G line in Malaysia last year was 14.83 megabits per second (Mbps), putting it among the bottom 20 countries on the list.
Although the service had been available for five years and promises internet speeds of up to 100 Mbps, Malaysia still lagged behind its neighbours such as Vietnam (average speed 21.49 Mbps), Brunei (17.48 Mbps) and Myanmar (15.56 Mbps).
However, the average speed was an improvement from the previous year’s performance of 14.35 Mbps, the report went on to say.
Singapore topped the list with an average speed of 44.32 Mbps, followed by the Netherlands (42.12 Mbps), Norway (41.2 Mbps) and South Korea (40.44 Mbps).
Three other South-east Asian countries were among the worst performers: Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. Laos was not ranked.
OpenSignal’s latest global report was published after analysing 50 billion measurements collected in the fourth quarter of 2017 to compare 4G performance in 88 countries.
The report also found that there was no sizeable increase in 4G speed among top performing countries and it hit a plateau of 45 Mbps across the board.
“For more than a year now, the fastest countries in the world seem to be stuck in a holding pattern, getting close but not surpassing the 50 Mbps threshold for average 4G speed,” the report read.
It, however, added that 4G availability continues to expand globally at a steady pace.
Consumers in five countries — South Korea, Japan, Norway, Hong Kong and the US — now have access to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) connection more than 90 per cent of the time. Just three months ago, only two countries had access.
Meanwhile, Malaysia was ranked at number 42 on the list with 74.88 per cent of availability, coming ahead of its neighbours Brunei (73.66 per cent), Indonesia (72.39 per cent) and Vietnam (71.26 per cent).
