The latest speedtest update from Ookla revealed that Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) has the slowest mobile download speeds among the location tested in Malaysia during Q3-Q4 2020.
Ookla is the company behind the world’s most popular Internet Speedtest platform.
During Q3-Q4 2020, these are the top 9 locations in Malaysia with the fastest average mobile Internet speeds:
| Rank | Location | Average Download Mbps | Average Upload Mbps | Average Latency ms |
| 1 | Nusajaya (Johor) | 35.87 | 14.51 | 31 |
| 2 | Johor Bahru | 26.89 | 12.59 | 34 |
| 3 | Shah Alam (Selangor) | 25.81 | 11.67 | 29 |
| 4 | Petaling Jaya (Selangor) | 25.72 | 11.83 | 33 |
| 5 | Malacca | 25.71 | 12.32 | 32 |
| 6 | Ipoh (Perak) | 24.86 | 12.40 | 33 |
| 7 | Seremban (Negeri Sembilan) | 24.50 | 11.16 | 29 |
| 8 | Kuala Lumpur (Wilayah Perseketuan) | 24.44 | 11.59 | 33 |
| 9 | Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) | 23.73 | 12.90 | 42 |
In Q3-Q4 2020, Ookla reveals that Digi was the fastest mobile operator among top providers in Malaysia with a Speed Score of 29.36 on modern chipsets:
- Digi: Ookla Speed Score of 29.36
- Maxis: Ookla Speed Score of 28.44
- Celcom: Ookla Speed Score of 22.99
- U Mobile: Ookla Speed Score of 21.63
- unifi Mobile: Ookla Speed Score of 12.22
Ookla did not consider the Yes4G mobile service from YTL Communications as the top mobile service provider in Malaysia.
According to Ookla, during Q3-Q4 2020, “Singapore had the fastest mean download speed over mobile broadband networks in major markets in Southeast Asia at 68.86 Mbps. Thailand was second (40.54 Mbps) and Vietnam third (33.14 Mbps). Malaysia ranked fourth on our list with a download speed of 24.53 Mbps, followed by the Philippines (17.41 Mbps) and Indonesia (16.69 Mbps).”
“Singapore ranked the fastest for mean upload speed over mobile with 18.75 Mbps, followed by Vietnam at 18.17 Mbps. Thailand was third for upload speed over mobile and Malaysia again ranked fourth with a mean upload speed of 11.19 Mbps. Indonesia ranked fifth for mean upload speed over mobile (10.42 Mbps) and the Philippines ranked sixth (5.47 Mbps),” it said.
Average Mobile Internet Latency during Q3-Q4 2020 in Malaysia (lower the better):
- Celcom: 31ms
- Maxis: 33ms
- Digi: 37ms
- U Mobile: 39ms
- Unifi Mobile: 39ms
Digi had the highest Consistency Score in Malaysia during Q3-Q4 2020, with 88.6% of results showing at least a 5Mbps minimum download speed and 1Mbps minimum upload speed:
- Digi: 88.6%
- Maxis: 84.5%
- U Mobile: 79.9%
- Celcom: 77.1%
- Unifi Mobile: 55.8%
Celcom had the best 4G Availability in Malaysia during Q3-Q4 2020 at 91.0%. U Mobile users spent more time on a 4G network (85.7%) compared to users of Digi (82.6%) and unifi Mobile (79.3%):
- Celcom: 91%
- Maxis: 87.1%
- U Mobile: 85.7%
- Digi: 82.6%
- Unifi Mobile: 79.3%
“An analysis of the proportion of users’ time spent that users spent on 2G, 3G and 4G found that 4G was the prevalent technology in Malaysia during Q3-Q4 2020. Users were connected to 4G 83.3% of the time. 3G followed at 12.1% and 2G was last at 1.3%,” Ookla said.
However, “there are still major gaps in 4G coverage in Malaysia”, as seen from the map of marketed LTE coverage below.
For smartphones with “modern chipsets”, iPhone 12 Pro Max 5G showed the fastest mean (average) download speed during Q3-Q4 2020 with 52.33 Mbps.
| Device Name | Manufacturer | Mean Download Mbps | Mean Upload Mbps | Mean Latency ms |
| iPhone 12 Pro Max 5G | Apple | 52.33 | 15.69 | 30 |
| Mate 30 Pro 5G | Huawei | 50.61 | 13.88 | 30 |
| iPhone 11 Pro Max | Apple | 40.08 | 13.34 | 40 |
| Mate 20 Pro | Huawei | 39.37 | 10.71 | 30 |
| P30 Pro | Huawei | 39.31 | 11.92 | 30 |
About 5.2% of the devices from Malaysia-speedtest were 5G capable.
Meanwhile for fixed broadband in Malaysia, TIME Internet was the fastest fixed broadband provider among top providers in Malaysia in Q3-Q4 2020 with a Speed Score of 103.32. It also has the lowest latency at 12ms compared to Maxis (17ms) and Telekom Malaysia (21ms).
As of February 2021, the average mobile download speeds in Malaysia was 23.72Mbps, upload speeds at 10.94Mbps, with a latency of 34ms, ranking 88 globally. For fixed broadband, the average download speeds was 93.07Mbps, upload speeds at 52.46Mbps and latency at 18ms, ranking 45 globally.
