The latest Ookla Net Index shows that Irish broadband speeds in terms of downloads are 53rd in the world, leaving the country trailing developing nations like Mongolia, Moldova and Vietnam for digital performance.
Results were obtained by analysing test data between 8 November, 2011 and 7 December 2011. Tests from 1,261,944 unique IPs have been taken in Ireland and of 8,134,094 total tests, 242,754 were used for the current Index.
The results show that Ireland is 71st in the world for upload speeds and 24th in the EU.
One of the main features of the Q4 report is the yawning gap between broadband performance in urban areas versus performance in rural areas. Interestingly, main towns in Ireland are getting better speeds than major cities.
Towns with between 10,000 and 30,000 people are now vastly outperforming cities, which are the main employment centres.
The fastest speeds in Ireland were recorded in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, where average speeds of 23Mbps are being delivered, followed by Athlone, Co Westmeath, with 17.4Mbps and Swords, Co Dublin, with 15.2Mbps.
Dublin City is in 13th place, with 9.4Mbps on average, while Cork has 20.3Mbps, on average.
IrelandOffline chairman Eamon Wallace says this performance plunge puts Ireland below Moldova, Vietnam, Mongolia since 2010, Papua, New Guinea, Ghana and Kyrgyzstan.
“These are countries in transition or developing economies, unlike Ireland, which aspires to be in the top tier of countries for internet access. Patently, this will not be the case as our performance is falling quarter by quarter.”
Ireland’s top 10 cities/towns and download speeds
1. Athlone 17.48 Mbps
2. Swords 15.12 Mbps
3. Celbridge 14.12 Mbps
4. Waterford 13.60 Mbps
5. Clonmel 12.35 Mbps
6. Lucan 12.24 Mbps
7. Greystones 11.89 Mbps
8. Maynooth 11.78 Mbps
9. Tallaght 11.62 Mbps
10. Mullingar 11.11 Mbps
