A new report on the state of LTE connections across the globe has been released by OpenSignal; and it shows that Malaysia is not doing all that badly compared to developed countries. The usual suspects still top the charts in terms of LTE speeds and coverage, but the rest of the world is catching up.
The fourth quarter of 2015 saw an increase of LTE speeds and coverage across all countries participating in the study. As expected, South Korea saw the largest coverage – with consumers in the country being able to find an LTE signal in 97-percent of the country. Japan and Hong Kong filled out the top three countries with the highest LTE coverage. Malaysia was recorded with an overall 55-percent LTE coverage in the country, which is comparable to countries like Germany, New Zealand, and Russia. Interestingly, the United Kingdom recorded only 53-percent coverage.
LTE speeds in Malaysia were on the lower end of the scale, but still respectable when compared to countries that are considered to be more advanced. Southern neighbours Singapore recorded the highest LTE speeds in the world with connections reaching 37 Mbps, while New Zealand comes a distant second with 29 Mbps. Malaysia recorded less than half of that speed at 12 Mbps. This puts in on par with several countries that are generally revered for their internet speeds like Hong Kong and Japan. To put things further into perspective, the United States only averaged 10 Mbps.
Malaysia’s LTE connection showed a positive trend compared to the third quarter of 2015, where average speeds were recorded at 11 Mbps and coverage stood at 50-percent. In other words, there has been an overall improvement in LTE service from telcos. There is still a long way to go for LTE in our country, but at least we are seeing an upward trend.
[Source: OpenSignal]
