A new global report on internet connectivity has put Rwanda among the top three African countries with the fastest internet broadband connectivity and downloading speeds, ranking the country ahead of more developed African economies such as South Africa and Egypt.

The global study, done by Ookla, a world leader in calculating broadband connection speed and web-based network diagnostic applications, was conducted in 180 countries, ranking Rwanda 87th worldwide and 3rd in Africa.

The report shows that Rwanda boasts of high download and upload speeds while its neighbours Kenya and Tanzania are ranked at 103 and 105 respectively.

The report released by the US-based firm on July 17, is based on the study compiled using over one billion results collected from Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net. For downloading speeds, Rwanda has 2.53MB/second.

South Korea emerged the leading nation with the fastest broadband with downloads and uploads speed standing at 32.27 Mbps. Rwanda internet speed supersedes that of an average African nation download speed of 1.6 Mbps.

The report also indicates that the slowest speeds in the world are found in Zambia, at an average 0.26 Mbps.

In terms of uploads speeds Rwanda is ranked at 36, with a speed of 2.03MB/second, putting it alongside China, France and Finland, some of the world’s leading ICT countries. 

Rwanda also beats Uganda in terms of uploads while its other neighbours Kenya and Tanzania are trailing behind.

The report also showed that internet users in Rwanda take less time uploading content on line than South Africans, a country which hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The Rwandan Government has invested heavily in ICT and plans are underway to make the country an ICT hub.

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