The U.K has the highest average mobile connection speed in the world at 27.9 megabits per second, according to Akamai’s new study “The State of the Internet.”

Akamai Technologies Inc., a content delivery network and web security firm, recently released its quarterly report that measures internet speeds for both desktop and mobile devices. Countries need to have at least 25,000 unique IP addresses spotted by Akamai and identified as coming from a mobile network to qualify for the mobile section of the study. 74 countries qualified. Telecommunications equipment provider Ericsson also contributed to the report.

The mobile connection speed for the U.S. is 5.1 Mgps on average in Q1 2016, an improvement from 4.0 Mgps in Q1 2015. After the U.K, Belgium is the next fastest at 19.4 Mgps, followed by  Norway at 18.1 Mgps for Q1 2016. In Q1 2015, the U.K. also had the fastest mobile connection at 20.4 Mgps.

However, when Akamai looked at average peak mobile connection speed, Germany won the race for Q1 2016 at 171.6 Mgps. Average peak connection speed is the average of only the highest connection speed from each IP address. This metric is more representative of internet connection capacity, Akamai says. Connection speeds often include when consumers download large files, such as applications, games and software updates, and slow speeds during this time do not represent normal use, Akamai says.

Germany (171.6 Mgps), Australia (147.6 Mgps), Thailand (118.3 Mgps) and Israel (115.8 Mgps) have the fastest average peak speeds. The U.K.’s average peak speed is 66.5 Mgps and the U.S.’s average peak speed is 19.8 Mgps.

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The study also finds that global data traffic increased because of both an increase in smartphone subscriptions and average data volume per subscription, fueled primary by consumers viewing more video content. In Q1 2016, data traffic grew 9.5% quarter over quarter and 60% year over year, according to Ericsson.

The research also finds that Android’s mobile browsers are the most popular globally. Android browsers Chrome and WebKit are responsible for 51% of mobile browser traffic, while iOS accounts for 41%. Other browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Blackberry, Opera Mini and Firefox Mobile, comprise the remaining browser share.

Android released the Chrome mobile browser with its 4.4 KitKat OS update, replacing its Android WebKit browser. Akamai combined both WebKit and Chrome metrics for mobile to calculate the Android browser metrics. Akamai has yet to release U.S.-specific mobile browser data.

Mobile connection speeds are expected to accelerate with the introduction of 5G, or the fifth-generation of wireless technology. 5G will pick up where 4G left off and will be significantly faster. Wireless carrier AT&T says it expects 5G to deliver speeds 10-100 times faster than today’s 4G LTE, which is the fastest connection today. The 5G rollout will likely accelerate the adoption of the Internet of Things, smart homes, driverless cars, surgical robots and more connected devices. Verizon and AT&T announced they will test 5G this summer. However, many of the standards for 5G have yet to be set.

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Research firm Ovum estimates that there will be 24 million 5G subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2021. Ovum also estimates 5G services will be available in more than 20 countries, however, the majority of subscriptions will be in the U.S., Japan, China and South Korea, where telecommunication providers have announced aggressive timelines for launching 5G services.

 

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