Egypt jumps 5 spots on Speedtest Global Index

Abdelrahman El-Agaty, Tuesday 23 Nov 2021

Egypt’s fixed broadband speed has been increased from 6.5 megabits per second (Mbps) in 2019 to 45.9 Mbps in 2021, which has boosted Egypt’s position on the Speedtest Global Index by Ookla, Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat said on his Facebook page on Thursday.

Monaco comes at the top of the list with a broadband speed of 270.25 per second.

Speedtest's Global Index is the ranking system made by Ookla – a global leader in internet testing, data and analysis – that compares internet speed data from users around the world on a monthly basis. The updated index showed that Egypt has moved up the list from 97th to 92nd in the world. 

"Egypt invested about EGP 60 billion to achieve this development," Talaat said.

This investment is part of a plan to pave the way for digitising Egypt, an approach deemed necessary especially under the conditions imposed by the pandemic.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is also developing infrastructure as part of the government's Decent Life initiative to increase the number of people with access to the improved internet services by investing EGP 5.8 billion to connect 1,400 villages.

The initiative aims to connect over 1 million households with fibre optic cables as a first phase, assuring that every rural household covered by the Decent Life initiative will eventually have access to high-speed internet.

The upgrade from copper cables to fibre optic has contributed to Egypt ranking 4th in Africa and 8th in the Arab world on the Global Index.

Fibre optic cables can send data at about 70 percent the speed of light, allowing for internet speeds of up to 940 Mbps in ideal conditions.

Additionally, fibre optic cables are more resistant to harsh weather conditions, which reduce outages.

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