Can No Longer Boast as the 'Internet Superpower'... Greatly Outpaced by China

South Korea Ranks 34th Globally in Ultra-High-Speed Internet Competitiveness
Sharp Decline Following 2nd Place in 2019 and 7th in 2020
China Fastest When Small Countries Are Excluded

Until just a few years ago, South Korea's ultra-high-speed internet infrastructure, once rated among the best in the world, has steadily declined in competitiveness, falling outside the top 30 rankings.

According to the internet speed measurement site 'Speedtest' on the 3rd, as of November last year, South Korea's average ultra-high-speed internet download speed was recorded at 171.12Mbps, ranking 34th. The ranking dropped significantly after being 2nd in 2019, 4th in 2020, and 7th in 2021.

Photo by Getty Images Bank

The decline in ranking has been steep in recent months. The Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency cited Speedtest's survey results from August last year in its publication of the '2022 National Intelligent Informatization White Paper.' At that time, South Korea's high-speed internet speed was 210.72Mbps, ranking 19th in the world.

As of November last year, the country with the fastest ultra-high-speed internet download speed was Monaco (320.8Mbps), followed by Singapore (295.78Mbps). However, both countries are small city-states with small populations and land areas. In this regard, Chile (291.62Mbps), with a population approaching 20 million and a large land area, had the fastest average speed among countries of a certain size or larger. Among the top 10 countries, excluding small countries, China ranked 6th with 276.10Mbps, and France ranked 7th with 272.94Mbps.

Industry experts analyzed that the significant drop in South Korea's average ultra-high-speed internet speed ranking is due to the early deployment of ultra-high-speed internet networks using hybrid fiber-coaxial networks, which have inferior quality, while latecomer countries built fiber-optic cables supporting faster speeds.

Average Speed and Ranking of Ultra-High-Speed Internet in Our Country (Download Basis)
Photo by Speed Test Capture

Meanwhile, South Korea maintained a high position, ranking 3rd in average mobile internet speed. This is one step down compared to November 2021, a year earlier. As of November last year, the top mobile internet speed was recorded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), followed by Qatar in 2nd place. The global average ultra-high-speed internet download speed and mobile speed were 148.48Mbps and 87.36Mbps, respectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.