4G speed improves in Brazil
The average 4G speed has improved in Brazil over the last few months, according to a new report by consulting firm OpenSignal.
Fourth generation mobile internet in Brazil has been provided at an average speed of 19.68 Megabits per second (Mbps) between July and September, according to the State of the LTE report.
This shows an improvement on the 16 Mbps speed noted by the previous global study carried out by the firm, which measured 4G speeds between June and August last year.
In the global ranking of 4G speeds, Brazil is ahead of the United States (13.03 Mbps), Russia (17.56 Mbps) and Argentina (12.19 Mbps). The speed of Brazilian 4G is also above the world average of 17.4 Mbps.
In terms of availability of 4G technology across Brazil, 4G is offered in 54 percent of the country. In that aspect Brazil now occupies the 62nd position in the ranking - in 2015, it ranked 51st, as operators made efforts to improve the service offering ahead of the Olympic Games.
According to a previous Brazil-specific study published by the consulting firm in June, Brazilian 4G users could find an LTE signal just 50 percent of the time. The study suggested that poor 4G signal availability in Brazil was partly due to underinvestment by local telco providers in relation to other countries.
According to OpenSignal, Singapore has the fastest 4G speed in the world, at 45.86 Mbps. South Korea ranks second with 45.77 Mbps, followed by Hungary (40.61 Mbps) and Romania (35.61 Mbps).
At the bottom of the list is Costa Rica (5.82 Mbps), followed by Saudi Arabia (5.97 Mbps), India (6.39 Mbps) and Philippines (7.27 Mbps).
OpenSignal collected simulation data from smartphones from users across 78 countries for the study. More than 500,000 users shared their information on 4G access and more than 17 billion measurements were carried out in the three-month period.