Oman mobile net speed No 2 in GCC

The overall mobile Internet speeds in Oman increased in 2017 to 11.41 Mbps, compared with 10.13 Mbps in 2016, according to a report from OpenSignal Mobile Network Analytics. The Internet subscriptions in the country increased 3.2 per cent to 362,545 as against 351,335 in December 2016. In terms of Internet speed, Oman was the second best in the GCC, next only to the UAE — 13.79 Mbps as against 12.36 Mbps in 2016. It was followed by Qatar — 10.84 Mbps (9.84 Mbps in 2016), Bahrain 10.10 Mbps (8.03 Mbps), Kuwait 9.94 Mbps (8.51 Mbps) and Saudi Arabia 5.8 Mbps (4.58 Mbps). The overall speeds vary from country to country depending on their different stages of 3G and 4G development. For instance, a country with fast LTE speeds but low 4G availability might have a much lower overall speed than a country with moderate LTE speeds, but very high level of 4G availability. The OpenSignal report says while 4G continues to extend its reach and speed across the globe, the “importance of WiFi as mobile data technology hasn’t waned”. The Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, South Korea, Japan and Australia provided overall average Internet speeds over 21 Mbps. South Korea topped the overall speed table, delivering a typical mobile data download connection of 37.5 Mbps.