Why You Can Trust CNET Kazakhstan has faster internet than Australia, report says
Australia's internet ranks 68th in the world, below Kazakhstan's spot at 65. The US is No. 11.
Australia's internet is notoriously slow.
Australia is a wealthy, advanced country, yet its broadband internet is curiously slow. After previously being ranked below Kenya, Australia now ranks 68th in the world, according to a new global internet index by Speedtest. Australia's internet is more sluggish than Kazakhstan's (64th), Kosovo's (61st) and Montenegro's (60th), despite having a gross domestic product almost 10 times that of those three countries combined.
The US stopped short of cracking the top 10, ranking 11th. (Sweden, No. 10, had an average download speed of 131.13Mbps, putting it just above the US' 130.79Mbps.) The UK came in at No. 45, about 3 Mbps faster than Russia. Leading the world's fixed wireless internet is Singapore, with average download speeds of just over 200Mbps.
Like most things, Australia's internet has been slowed down by politics. In 2007 the Australian government greenlighted the National Broadband Network (NBN), an infrastructure project that would see fiber cables deliver download speeds of over 100Mbps straight to people's houses. Now, 13 years, over AU$50 billion ($34 billion) and several government changes later, the average download speeds in Australia are 41.78Mbps, according to Speedtest.
Locating local internet providers
Mobile internet is a different game, though. There Australia is ranked 6th in the world (67.66Mbps), far above the US (36th, 41Mbps), the UK (48th, 35.57Mbps) and, yes, Kazakhstan (101st, 19.59Mbps). South Korea, as always, tops mobile internet. Its average mobile download speed is over 103Mbps.
