Saturday, Mar 31, 2012
Gulf News
Dubai According to a study conducted by ARChart, du has the best overall mobile broadband performance in the Middle East and Africa.
The ARCchart study is based on data speed and latency measurements collected using a speed test smartphone app. This approach has allowed ARCchart to collect millions of individual test readings from hundreds of thousands of users who have conducted tests for virtually every mobile carrier in every country in the world.
“The top six operators are all in the Middle East, but three South African operators make it into the top 10. As a whole, the UAE is the country which shows the best overall download performance in the region, with networks in the country averaging 2,457 kbps data throughput,” Rethink wireless website said.
The telecom operator was not available for comment at the time of going to press.
Criteria assessed
The networks of 72 carriers in 25 African and Middle Eastern countries were assessed for their download, upload, latency, network quality and smartphone penetration.
“Mobile network operators are using mobile broadband as their weapon of choice in the fight against the commoditisation of voice and falling ARPU [average revenue per user]. It is, therefore, imperative that carriers have networks which can consistently and reliably deliver good data performance to their customers,” the website said.
A wide variation in mobile broadband performance is observed, with some operators achieving speeds many times faster than competing carriers. For example, in Morocco, Medi Telecom has the country’s fastest download average of 978 kbps while INWI, another operator, manages just 124 kbps. In South Africa, Vodacom’s upload average is 1,227 kbps, while MTN’s is 564 kbps.
Individual countries were also ranked for the average download performance supported by all the networks deployed in their market. The UAE, Angola and Saudi Arabia take the top three spots.
By Naushad K. Cherrayil?Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
