Cities with the best internet speeds revealed – with London coming in 76th place

The cities with the best internet speeds have been revealed – and it’s bad news for Britons. 

Ookla analysed the average mobile internet and broadband speeds in 200 cities across 179 countries around the world last month. 

In terms of mobile internet, Dubai came out on top followed by Ar-Rayyan, Beijing and Shanghai, while Beijing, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai topped the list for broadband speeds. 

Unfortunately for Britons, London came in a dismal 42nd place for mobile internet speeds and 76th place for broadband speeds, while Manchester came in 38th place for mobile internet and 82nd for broadband. 

‘It’s official, London is lagging, with the capital still miles behind its world city rivals when it comes to internet speeds,’ said Alex Tofts, broadband expert at Broadband Genie, who was not involved in the study. 

Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index ranks the internet performance around the world. 

‘Our list includes the two largest cities from each country,’ Ookla explained. 

‘The cities must also have over 500,000 inhabitants and sufficient samples to be included. 

‘They are ranked according to median download speed based on Speedtest data from the month prior.’

At a city level, Dubai came out on top for mobile internet, with residents enjoying impressive speeds of 204.37Mbps on average.

European cities in the top 10 include Oslo (175.01Mbps), Copenhagen (174.85Mbps) and Stockholm (146.29Mbps). 

However, in the UK it’s quite a different story, with Londoners only experiencing speeds of 67.01Mbps on average, while those in Manchester have a marginally better experience of 70.5Mbps. 

In terms of broadband speeds, Beijing tops the list (277.57Mbps), followed by Abu Dhabi (247.57Mbps), Shanghai (236.01Mbps) and Bangkok (228.29Mbps). 

London comes in 76th place with average speeds of 79.13Mbps, while Manchester is in 82nd place, with average speeds of 74.10Mbps.  

‘In 2015, a cross-party group of London’s MPs said it was “unacceptable” for the city to be trailing European rivals on broadband, yet eight years on the gap seems to be as big as ever,’ Mr Tofts said.

‘Paris enjoys average download speeds of 164.61 Mb — more than twice as quick as the Big Smoke, while Bucharest and Bogota are also putting us to shame.

‘If you wanted to download the new Hogwarts Legacy game in London it would take you nearly two-and-a-half hours, while in Beijing it would take around 40 minutes.

‘Meanwhile Manchester, the only other UK city on the list, is 82nd just behind the Bulgarian capital Sofia, with a rate of 74.10 Mb, below the global average of 76.34 Mb.’

Ookla also looked at the average internet speeds at a country level. 

For mobile internet, the United Arab Emirates came out on top, followed by Qatar, Norway and South Korea, while Singapore, Chile and China topped the list for broadband speeds. 

The UK was ranked number 42 for mobile internet, and number 54 for broadband.

‘As a whole, the UK is ranked 54th in the world,’ Mr Tofts added.

‘Its 72.24 Mb speed means it’s sandwiched between Barbados and Peru, behind 16 of the 27 EU countries and two places down in January 2022.

‘Compared with the likes of China, the US and Denmark, which lead the way on global download speeds, the UK is currently an also-ran and it shows how desperately upgrades are needed to our broadband infrastructure.

‘To make us more competitive and help our businesses, the Government must make good on its Project Gigabit pledges to roll out 1,000 Mb download speeds. 

‘For millions across the country, it can’t come soon enough.’