Competition among telecommunications operators and a focus on streaming services and online games have placed the UAE as the country with the fastest 5G mobile network in the world. In the top-10 of the Ookla consultancy, Europe is only represented by Bulgaria and both the United States and India did not manage to enter the main places of the table.
Among the nearly 90 countries that have already launched 5G mobile networks, the UAE is the fastest 5G market in the world. With an average download speed reaching 557.63 megabits per second (Mbps), the country is ahead of all others, including South Korea, which was in second place, with 501.56 Mbps. The performance, evaluated by the American consultant Ookla Speedtest Intelligence , refers to the second quarter of 2023, and places the Etisalat operator as the fastest on the planet, with an average download speed of 680.73 Mbps.
Qatar (465.62 Mbps), Brazil (447.30 Mbps) and Singapore (388.55 Mbps) are the remaining countries that occupy the top five positions in this ranking . Europe is represented only by Bulgaria (233.63 Mbps), but neither the United States nor India managed to enter the first 10 places in this table.
The results of the United Arab Emirates were, according to Ookla, greatly driven by consumers, especially in the younger age group, who spend an average of 4.7 hours a day on video games for mobile devices. 5G offers lower latency than previous generations of mobile technology, which, together with high throughput, enable uninterrupted and smooth connectivity for home and business applications dependent on a high level of network responsiveness, as is the case of online games and game streaming in the cloud.
Away from the US-Europe-China-South Korea axis, which in practice has dominated advances in 5G technologies, the United Arab Emirates appears in this ranking as the country that managed to boost competition in the telecommunications market to achieve rapid economic growth. Shortly after allocating spectrum for 5G use, the two operators – Etisalat and Du – made commercial services available in the second quarter of 2019. Since then, they have rapidly launched and expanded 5G networks, achieving near-full population coverage by 2022.
The achievement was even more surprising given the difficulties generated by the covid-19 pandemic, which had an impact on the decline in revenue from devices and roaming , point out the authors of the Ookla analysis. The challenges, however, were eventually overcome, with Etisalat and Du revenues increasing by 6% and 8.4% respectively. The prospects remain high, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicting that, after a strong recovery of 7.4% in 2022, the economy will reach GDP growth of 3.5% in 2023.
The recovery, greatly benefited by the return of tourists in the post-pandemic and the increase in oil prices, is boosting competition, with the two operators seeking market leadership through new digital services and, above all, through the migration of customers from prepaid to postpaid models. Subscribers of any operator can, for example, opt for plans that allow them to choose video streaming services , live sports, online games, among others.
According to the report, the two UAE telecom companies will continue to invest in higher mobile network performance while simultaneously looking to deliver new 5G use cases. Etisalat expects to launch its commercial 5G Standalone (SA) network later this year, while Du plans to launch 5G-Advanced technology and more use cases for the consumer segment.