A total of 53 countries in the world have achieved fixed broadband download speed higher than the global average, including 7 countries in the Middle East
According to the Speedtest Global Index, released by Ookla, the download speed of global fixed broadband continues to increase. After breaking through 100Mbps for the first time in April 2025 with 100.98Mbps, the latest released data in June 2025 has been further increased to 102.48Mbps.
The upload speed has steadily increased to 56.3Mbps, and the latency on the fixed broadband network has remained at a low level of 8ms for three consecutive months. A total of 53 countries in the world have achieved fixed broadband download speed higher than the global average, including 7 countries in the Middle East which are UAE (No.3), Kuwait (No.21), Qatar (No.25), Jordan (No.33), Bahrain (No.43) and Saudi Arabia (No.46).
Bahrain has performed the most impressively, rising 25 places from 68th at the beginning of the year to 43rd place, becoming the country with the fastest ranking improvement in the world. This is due to the FBB packages’ promotion policy released by TRA (Telecommunications Regulatory Authority) Bahrain in early 2025.
According to the policy, the speed of all fixed broadband packages in Bahrain is at least doubled and the price remains unchanged. The entry package is increased from 100Mbps to 300Mbps. At the same time, 2Gbps service package is launched as well. The policy is also applicable to a large number of existing users, which is an important reason for the rapid increase in Speedtest ranking.
According to the TRA document, “the Broadband is an essential service that allows us all to access the internet and fully participate in the digital economy. Everyone in the Kingdom can access the internet (at 100% we are one of few countries in the world that have achieved this milestone). Today consumers and businesses choose internet access by selecting services using either fiber or mobile (both 4G and 5G) technologies”. This policy is also an important measure to achieve the goals of Bahrain’s Sixth National Telecommunications Plan (NTP6), which proposed a grand vision of achieving 100% national fiber coverage, and stated that “the Government will promote access to high-speed broadband, offering speeds of over 1 Gbps for residential users and 10 Gbps symmetric speeds for businesses at affordable prices” by 2026.
According to the comparison between fixed broadband and mobile broadband data, the global FBB performance is better than MBB in terms of download speed (FBB 102.48Mbps vs MBB 92.82Mbps), upload speed (FBB 56.30Mbps vs MBB 13.72Mbps), and latency (FBB 8ms vs MBB 25ms). However, the MBB development in the Middle East is ahead of the FBB development, and the development of the MBB and FBB is unbalanced. The download speed ranking of mobile broadband in the Middle East is far ahead in the world, with 5 countries in the global TOP10, including UAE (No.1), Qatar (No.2), Kuwait (No.3), Bahrain (No.4) and Saudi Arabia (No.10). However, UAE (No.3) is the only country in the fixed broadband network TOP10.
Regarding the current uneven development of FBB and MBB, Ms. Kholoud Aldorgham, Director General of Fiber Connect Council MENA, pointed out that “fiber broadband is a key enabler of the digital economy, expanding from homes to business scenarios as enterprise campus with its high bandwidth and sustainability. Accelerating the construction and development of fiber broadband networks requires the attention of governments and regulators in the region, and the balanced development of FBB and MBB is an important foundation for achieving national digital and intelligent transformation.”
Read more about the Speedtest Global Index here.
