Nigeria has taken over South Africa in regards to Internet speed, according to a report by the Akamai Technologies Global Internet Platform
The platform that visualises and analyses global web performance released the State of the Internet report revealing that Nigeria was leading in terms of Internet speeds across Africa, 11 years after the country reformed its communications networks and market.
According to the report, Nigeria had an average connection speed of 322kbps with a peak rate of 5,674kbps, while South Africa’s average speed was faster at 496kbps with the country’s peak speed only half of Nigeria's peak speed, at 2,172kbps.
“All mobile service providers across Africa had average peak connection speeds above 2mbps, though last place South African provider, ZA-1 was just above the threshold, losing more than 13 per cent from the prior quarter, at 2.2 mbps,” the report read.
The report further revealed, “In 2011 South Africa was one of only two countries listed in the report with an average peak connection speed below 2mbps. South Africa had average 442kbps over Nigeria’s 286kbps, however, Nigeria outperformed with peak 4,871kbps and average 462mbps per month over South Africa’s 1,654kbps and 197mbps.”
The report also noted that speeds across the globe were improving and that all 117 countries that qualified for inclusion measured an increase in average connection speeds.
The gain in average speed, however, wasn’t uniform, as European country Montenegro grew by 0.2 per cent to 2.8mbps, while Libya measured a 75 per cent increase to 0.5mbps.
