Colombia’s Median Broadband Internet Speeds Mediocre, Mobile Speeds Poor For South America

Colombia’s Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC) has published measurements in July indicating that overall, Colombia’s broadband Internet speeds are improving. According to the report released by the commission, fixed Internet service speeds showed significant growth (89% download and 121% upload) between 2020 and 2021, an increase that is associated with the observed increase in access to fiber optic networks by 40% in the same period. Access to fiber optic connectivity grew by 40%.

The published quality measurements for the period between January 2018 and December 2021 include seventeen cities in Colombia: Armenia, Barranquilla, Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Ibagué, Manizales, Medellín, Montería, Pasto, Pereira, Popayán, Santa Marta, Sincelejo, Tunja, and Villavicencio. Data was obtained from Ookla’s Speedtest application.

Compared to 11 countries in South America, Colombia ranks fourth in download speed and third in upload speed in fixed Internet service, but in mobile internet, Colombia ranks a very poor 10th in download speed and 8th in upload speed.

“With these measurements, the Commission continues to provide information that facilitates decision-making by users when choosing the operators that best suit their needs, and at the same time, seeks to encourage operators to improve the provision of their services in the different regions of the country,” said the Executive Director of the CRC, Paola Bonilla Castaño.

Fixed Internet

• Bucaramanga, Bogotá and Cali recorded the highest average download or download speeds in December 2021, 101.2 Mbps, 95.8 Mbps and 91.2 Mbps respectively.
• The city of Bucaramanga recorded the highest average upload speed with 63.5 Mbps.
• At the carrier level, Movistar recorded the highest average download speed in December 2021 with 129.7 Mbps, followed by ETB with 101.8 Mbps, Claro with 82.4 Mbps and Tigo with 71.9 Mbps.

 Tigo had the lowest latency of mobile providers at 30ms

Mobile Internet

• The download speed at the Colombia level for the year 2021 was 17.6 Mbps, with a decrease of 3.3% compared to 2020.
• Montería, Cartagena and Barranquilla presented the highest average download speeds for the year 2021, with 22.6 Mbps, 22.2 Mbps and 21.2 Mbps respectively.
• At the operator level, for the year 2021, Tigo recorded the highest average download speed, with 24.8 Mbps, followed by WOM with 16.9 Mbps, Claro with 16.1 Mbps, Avantel with 14.6 Mbps, Movistar with 14.3 Mbps and ETB with 14 Mbps.
• For the year 2021, the average loading or uploading speed for Colombia was 9.9 Mbps, which does not represent a variation in relation to the year 2020, and a decrease of 3.9% compared to the year of 2019.

Cali showed the fastest median mobile download speed among Colombia’s most populous cities during Q2 2022 at 13.55 Mbps.

• Pasto, Montería and Barranquilla recorded the highest averages for upload speed in 2021, with 12 Mbps, 11.9 Mbps and 11.7 respectively.
• As for operators, Tigo recorded the highest average upload speed in 2021 with 13.3 Mbps, followed by Claro with 9.2 Mbps, Movistar with 8.8 Mbps, Avantel with 8.6 Mbps, ETB with 8 Mbps and WOM with 7.6 Mbps.
• WOM had the highest Consistencyin Colombia during Q2 2022, with 78.4% of results showing at least a 5 Mbps minimum download speed and 1 Mbps minimum upload speed.

Devices from Apple had the fastest median download speed in Colombia during Q2 2022 at 16.62 Mbps.