The launch of 4G in Israel has boosted mobile browsing speeds, according to the Ookla international speed index, one of the most important and reliable indices in the world for measuring Internet speed.
The average mobile browsing speed in Israel jumped from 5.58 Mbps in June, to 7.78 Mbps in July, and to 8.27 Mbps in August. In June, Israel ranked 63rd in the world rankings, in July, it jumped to 51st place, thanks to Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR), which launched its 4G network for its employees and customer, and, in August, Israel climbed three more spots to 48th place, when Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) and Pelephone Communications Ltd. launched their 4G networks.
The website gathers data from the hundreds of thousands of users all around Israel who test their browsing speeds, and, therefore, it is considered to be very reliable, because it is based on real-time user-tests, conducted as broadly as possible, and not on isolated tests.
The 4G launch in Israel was very limited, because of the small amount of bandwidth allocated for mobile carriers. Therefore, it’s expected that there will be a further increase in speed in the coming months, and another, more significant one, following the expected frequency tender in November.
The index also indicates that the fastest speeds were recorded by Partner in August, followed by Cellcom and Pelephone. According to the index, Partner led the browsing speeds for the past year by a wide margin, with Pelephone and Cellcom switching between second and third places, while Pelephone held second place for the majority of the time. In August, Cellcom moved into second place, but, as mentioned, for a few months running, Pelephone was in second place.
An interesting point is that Hot Mobile Ltd., which is listed on the Index as Mirs Communications Ltd. (its old name), has held in third and fourth place, and Golan Telecom Ltd. consistently appears as the carrier with the slowest Internet speed. It is possible that the matter is due to deliberate speed limits, or other unclear reasons.
Partner’s speed in August was 9.28 Mbps, Cellcom’s was 7.84 Mbps, and Pelephone was 7.37 Mbps. In July, Partner was 9.32 Mbps, Pelephone was 6.45 Mbps, and Cellcom was 6.27 Mbps.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 14, 2014
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