South Korea's Internet Slower Than Vietnam and Thailand? Telecom Industry Cites Measurement Limits
IT DAILY ·
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In Ookla's Speedtest Global Index, South Korea's median wired internet download speed as of August this year was 251.33 Mbps, ranking 22nd.
In the same survey, Singapore ranked first at 462.50 Mbps, Vietnam ranked 8th at 301.48 Mbps, and Thailand ranked 9th at 298.92 Mbps.
The domestic telecom industry countered that Ookla's survey has limits in comparison and credibility because of server location, number, users' access environment and the undisclosed measurement procedure.
According to IT Daily, Ookla's "Speedtest Global Index," which was cited and published on the 13th, showed that as of August this year, South Korea's wired internet speed ranked below those of Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.
In the survey, South Korea's median wired internet download speed was 251.33 Mbps, ranking 22nd in the world.
In the same survey, Singapore's download speed was 462.50 Mbps, ranking first, while Vietnam's was 301.48 Mbps at 8th place and Thailand's was 298.92 Mbps at 9th.
In response, the domestic telecom industry countered that there are limits to comparing internet quality by country based only on Ookla's measurements.
The domestic telecom industry said factors limiting comparison include the location and number of speed test servers and users' access environments, adding that server conditions and usage environments affect the results. Photo credit: Pixabay.
Ookla released a report. The report was based on the Speedtest internet speed measurement site. However, because Speedtest does not disclose the scale and location of its measurement servers, questions have been raised about the limits of confirming its sample composition. According to a telecom industry source, Speedtest uses about 15,000 PCs around the world as test servers, and there is said to be only one test server in South Korea.
On the same day, the OECD announced that as of 2025, South Korea's share of fiber-optic cable among wired internet lines was 92%. Among member countries, South Korea ranked second, and Iceland was first at 96%. South Korea's figure was 41 percentage points (p) higher than the OECD average of 51%.
Such a high share of fiber-optic cable indicates the broad deployment of infrastructure that supports high-speed, large-capacity communications. However, the fiber-optic cable share is a metric that reflects infrastructure levels. It is separate from actual user-perceived speed.
A telecom industry source questioned the reliability of Ookla's assessment, saying that the measurement procedure was undisclosed, the undisclosed items included the servers and devices used, and only the measurement results were presented, meaning the credibility can be judged as low for that reason.
Source: IT DAILY · Seong Won-young
Original: https://www.itdaily.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=242194
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Source: IT DAILY
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