Uganda, which has consistently outshined Kenya in internet download speeds, has continued to make major strides to improve its connectivity.
According to Speedtest Global Index by Ookla, the East African country improved 15 positions to rank 57 globally after its download speed hit 36.21 Mbps on Wednesday, February 15.
In comparison, Kenya, which improved by 5 slots to position 87, recorded a download speed of 22.69 Mbps.
Regarding upload speeds, Uganda also performed better than Kenya after recording a speed of 15.79 Mbps against the latter's 9.27 Mbps.
In a different fixed broadband category, Uganda also outsmarted Kenya after emerging at position 149 against the latter's 155.
In the general ranking, Shanghai, a city in China, was ranked the best city worldwide regarding mobile internet speeds. In contrast, Beijing, a large manufacturing and office city had the best speed in the fixed broadband category.
"The Speedtest Global Index shows China topped the list with Shanghai as the fastest city on our list for mobile with a median download speed of 158.63 Mbps, while Beijing was fastest for fixed broadband during September 2022 at 238.86 Mbps.
"Our list includes the two largest cities from each country. The cities must also have over 500,000 inhabitants and sufficient samples to be included. They are ranked according to median download speed based on Speedtest data from the month prior," read a statement by Ookla on its ranking process.
On the other hand, research by Surfshark, a cybersecurity company based in the Netherlands, that was released in October 2022 indicated that internet use in Uganda ranked as the most expensive worldwide.
Via a survey, internet users in the East African country claimed that it was not affordable ranking the country at position 116 out of a total of 117 countries surveyed. Kenya had the cheapest internet in the survey and ranked at position 92.
It was also estimated that only 6.1 per cent of the Ugandan population has consistent access to the internet.
Over the last decade, internet penetration across the African Continent has taken centre stage, with Kenya among the countries leading on the front.
Former Police Spokesperson Cyrus Oguna noted that internet penetration had hit 93 per cent as of June 2022 after recording a 62.5 per cent increase.
The improvement was largely attributed to former President Uhuru Kenyatta's robust investment in digital access.
“The dividends of the investments in undersea fibre cable manifest has seen internet penetration rise from 31.4 per cent in 2013 to 93.9 per cent in 2022,” stated Oguna at the time.
In January 2023, President William Ruto's regime also begun the construction of a digital superhighway aimed at transforming Health, Agriculture, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and Financial sectors.
“We have started the process to increase and fast-track broadband connectivity across the country.
“This is being achieved by constructing 100,000 kilometers of national fibre optic connectivity network,” the Office of the Government Spokesperson announced in a statement.
