Nigeria has been ranked as the 141st among 192 countries with low Internet speeds across the world. This revelation was captured in the latest monthly internet speeds measurement conducted by technology firm, Ookla’s Net Index in May, 2014.
The report places the Seychelles as having the quickest internet speeds in Africa in May, followed by Namibia, as the two African countries in the top half of global speeds, according to Ookla’s Net Index. The Seychelles had an average internet speeds of 11.32 mbps, ranking 72nd of 192 countries included in the index.
Generally, the rating showed that African countries still lagged behind other more developed nations, especially in Europe and North America and this is shown by the poor ranking of the top countries in the continent in internet speeds.
Despite Nigeria’s 141st position in the global index, the country is rated 16th in Africa, a ranking showing that many African countries have very slow speeds and that a lot of work to still has to be done in getting internet speeds up to globally acceptable levels. Namibia’s average speed was 10.32 Mbps, putting it in 2nd position in Africa and 81st globally, with no other African country making the top half of the list.
Kenya, Rwanda and Ghana ranked third, fourth and fifth in Africa – 104th, 106th and 108th respectively on a global scale – with speeds of 7.30 mbps, 7.23 mbps and 7.16 mbps respectively. Zimbabwe made the list at 112th worldwide and 6th in Africa with an average speed of 6.72 mbps, while Cape Verde was in 7th in Africa and at number 116 globally with average speeds of 6.43 Mbps. Libya, Lesotho and Tanzania completed the top 10 African countries, ranking 124th, 126th, and 128th respectively.
South Africa was listed as 128th worldwide and Senegal at 130th with speeds of 5.34 Mbps and 5.31 mbps, Ethiopia ranked 131st with an average speed of 5.23 mbps, and Uganda crept in 135th with 5.04 mbps
The rest of African countries listed saw speeds of below five Mbps and made up much of the bottom 60 countries listed. Experts have blamed the relatively poor internet speeds in Nigeria on the fact that the country has not been able to carry excess bandwidth from undersea cables located in the Southern part of the nation to the hinterland. The main undersea cables that are delivering bandwidth to Nigeria are Glo-1, MainOne, Sat-3 and the MTN West African Cable System (WACS).
Dolphin Telecoms, a global communications carrier and operator of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable system in West Africa is also working to land a $700 million (N109.2 billion) submarine cable in Nigeria in the fourth quarter of this year.