LONDON, UK – Canada now ranks within the top 20 countries for 4G availability and speed, an improvement from six months ago, according to the latest The State of LTE report by OpenSignal.
The report used over 19 billion measurements collected by 558,260 smartphone and smart device users between January 1 – March 31, 2017 to compare 4G speed and availability in 75 countries.
4G availability was measured by tracking the percentage of time OpenSignal users were able to latch onto an LTE signal, reads the report. South Korea and Japan are still the only two countries able to provide LTE connectivity more than 90% of the time, but the U.S. moved up to fourth spot with 86.50%, up from 10th spot in the last report in November. Canada was ranked 17th with 81.10% 4G availability.
Singapore, South Korea and Hungary again topped the LTE speed charts, averaging LTE download connections of 40 Mbps or greater, speeds that rival wired broadband connections in most countries. The report said that 15 countries now average LTE speeds 30 Mbps, compared to 11 countries in its last report. Canada ranked 13th with speeds of 30.58 Mbps, well ahead of the U.S. which was 59th with speeds of 14.99 Mbps.
Every country may face a different set of 4G conditions today, but those conditions are constantly changing, continued the report. Operators are expanding their LTE footprints, upgrading their networks and finding more spectrum to plow into their 4G services. As 4G device and service costs drop in particular countries, demand for 4G capacity and coverage increases. Any of these factors can cause significant shifts in the data.
