Malaysia’s sole, exclusive, Government-owned 5G network service provider, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) claims on its website that the average speeds of its 5G network is currently at 514Mbps, possibly making it one of the fastest 5G network in world, although not independently verified.
DNB did not reveal the methods it used to achieve the super fast average 5G speedtest result.
For quick comparison, South Korea is the fastest country in world when it comes to 5G download speeds, in Q3 2021, according to the latest State of 5G Worldwide in 2021 report from Ookla.
Speedtest by Ookla is a popular, global independent Internet speedtest platform.
South Korea recorded a 5G median speed of 492.48Mbps, making it the fastest 5G country in the world, as of Q3 2021. Other Fastest 5G Countries in the World are Norway, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Sweden, China, Taiwan and New Zealand. Countries such as Sweden, China, Taiwan and New Zealand were new to the top 10 in 2021 while South Africa (whose 5G was brand new last year), Spain and Hungary fell out of the top 10.
Ookla says that its median measurement represents the download speeds seen by the typical user and is not the same with Average (mean) speeds that is traditionally measured. Average speeds are typically faster than the Median speeds reported by Ookla.
Unlike DNB’s super fast 5G network, Ookla said that 5G speeds slowed down at the global level. It recorded a 5G median download speed of 166.13Mbps in Q3 2021, which is 13% slower than the 206.22Mbps recorded in Q3 2020. Upload speeds was also slower by 39% in Q3 2021 at 21.08Mbps compared to 29.52Mbps in Q3 2020.
Meanwhile, the Ookla 5G Map, which is updated weekly, has yet to acknowledge the existence of the commercial 5G service in Malaysia, as of 9 January 2022, at the time of publishing this commentary. The 5G service in Malaysia was launched on 15 December 2021 and currently only available from a single mobile service service provider, Yes, with limited coverage and supported on a small number of 5G devices.
Operated by YTL Communications, Yes is the only major Mobile Network Operator (MNO) in Malaysia not recognised by Ookla in its quarterly Speedtest Global Index report.
According to the Ookla 5G Map, there were 5G deployments in 112 countries as of November 30, 2021. That’s up from 99 countries on the same date a year ago.
When it comes to World Capitals, Ookla says that Seoul (South Korea) has the fastest median 5G speeds at 530.83Mbps, followed by Oslo (Norway) at 513.08Mbps and Stockholm (Sweden) at 424.78Mbps followed by Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Doha Qatar followed.
Brasilia, Brazil had the slowest median download speed over 5G in the list, followed by Warsaw, Poland; Cape Town, South Africa and Rome, Italy.
Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway had some of the the fastest median upload speeds over 5G at 56.26 Mbps and 49.95 Mbps, respectively, while Cape Town had the slowest at 14.53 Mbps.
The United States had the highest 5G Availability at 49.2%, followed by the Netherlands (45.1%), South Korea (43.8%), Kuwait (35.5%) and Qatar (34.8%). Brazil had the lowest 5G Availability in the list at 0.8%, followed by Sweden (1.5%), South Africa (2.7%), New Zealand (2.9%) and Hungary (3.6%). 5G Availability refers to the amount of time a device/user is connected to the network.
The full report can be accessed here.
Disclaimer: This is a commentary. Please refer to the respective parties/Telcos for official information.
Also read:
- 3 Reasons Why You should wait for 5G from Maxis, Celcom, Digi & U Mobile – Opinion
- 5G is now available in Malaysia, but not from Maxis, Celcom, Digi and U Mobile
- List of 5G Smartphones that will work with the Malaysia 5G Network
- 4 Reason why Malaysia 5G is not going to fix all the Internet problems [Opinion]
- GSMA says Digital Nasional Berhad is a 5G monopoly, highlights 8 Potential Risk
