Do you feel often angry or disappointed with your download speeds? Find out if you are taking it for granted in this report featuring the countries with the slowest internet connection in Europe
Most reports or news about internet speed tend to focus in which companies or countries have the fastest internet, but in this unusual report, you will find what countries have the slowest internet connections in europe
From government influence to broadband share of total connections, there is a number factors that influence your country’s internet speed. This post will explain briefly some of these factors and also help you to compare your local internet speed in an European context.
All data found here was extracted from a report published quarterly by a company called Akamai, which is a content delivery network with a diverse portfolio with clients ranging from Airbnb to Autotrader.
The report published by Akamai is called “the state of the internet” and can be found here. It features not only internet speeds but also the adaption of IPv6 and digital security profiles of most countries around the world.
The Speed of Internet in Europe
On a global scale, Europe positions itself with fairly high internet speeds, thanks to relatively open markets, decent infrastructure and good efforts of research in technology.
Some of the fastest internet countries in the world are in Europe, but the number one is still South Korea, which is not a surprise, again.
Sweden has the fastest internet speed in the continent as we enter 2016, with a average connection of 17.5 Mpbs. This number will be a reference as we check the countries with the slowest internet connection in Europe.
Countries with the slowest internet connection in Europe
5 – Belarus
Internet speed: 6Mbps
Belarus was a former state of the Soviet Union, but it’s internet rank is worse than all of its neighbors in the region. A highly state-owned economy certainly does not help Belarus to improve it’s tech infrastructure.
4 – Bosnia and Herzegovina
Internet speed: 5.7Mbps
A turbulent past and having a country still de facto divided in two (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska) have not contributed for the development of telecommunications infrastructure in this Southeastern European nation.
3 – Croatia
Internet speed: 5.5Mbps
Despite being a member of the European Union and a relatively wealthy country, Croatia certainly doesn’t have a favorable geographical profile for the spread of broadband internet, having a great part of its territory in the Dinaric Alps and a significant number of habited islands.
2 – Albania
Internet speed: 5Mbps
Albania is officially the poorest country of Europe in GDP per capita terms, it certainly doesn’t attract a lot of investment from Telecom companies. Poor business conditions and low GDP are the main factors behind Albania’s low internet speed.
1 – Montenegro
Internet speed: 4.6Mbps
Montenegro currently holds the first place in the ranking of the countries with the slowest internet connection in Europe. Montenegro got independent just in 2006, and with a population of less than 1 million people and a highly mountainous landscape, certainly they didn’t have the opportunity to build a better infrastructure for internet in this tiny Balkan nation.
Don’t get me started on the prices. Compared to other internet providers in EU we (Montenegro) pay possibly the highest prices for the worst internet service, with remarkable down time. Government privatized national telecommunication company few years ago, and all of its infrastructure in a vague process (read: corruption). They sold it for a dime and now we have 2-3 companies that have a monopoly on telecommunications, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
I will certainly do a research on that! What is the usual price one can expect for broadband internet in MNE?
The lowest price is about 20 euros, but nov we have better situation, there are new internet services with a speed of 15 mb for 22 euros…Not bad, huh…
It depends on the ISP. I’m paying 18 EUR for 16mb/s. Note that this is the cheapest ISP in Montenegro. Then we have Deutsche Telekom subsidiary – Tcom MNE which offers 5mb/s ADSL for 18 EUR and the prece reduction was made this month. Last year the price for this internet speed was 25 EUR.
That’s quite high indeed. In Poland you can get unlimited 4G internet without a contract for 10 euro per month. In Latvia you can get 90 mpbs for 7 euro per month if I am not mistaken.
“Flat5” package that T-com MNE offers is 18€ for 5Mb/s + 24 month contract + landline fee. Altogether ~23€ monthly (was 30€). Sometimes they would hold me for 45min on their customer service line, when internet was down in order to ask me have I switched on/off the router. After many unfortunate years of being their client I switched to “M kabl” which is pretty much the same, but I just felt like swapping the previous bloodsuckers. The same package that commentator D has, but it’s not only 18€ for 16Mb/s. It’s 18€ + 10€ for maintenance(?) + 18 month contract. Altogether ~29€ monthly.
P.s. Forget about mobile internet.
Where I live, there’s no ADSL connection available, so the best I can have is satellite internet via SBS that charges €120/month for 100GB, with high speed switched off between 5pm and midnight once you’ve gone past 40GB. Installation costs around €700. Count yourselves Internet-fortunate you do not live in rural Montenegro!
Wow! But at least the landscape is probably nice 😛
Hi,
Yeah the landscape was nice, until the local corrupted government started destroying the woods for export, and increased pollution in every way possible. We are a small, but rather corrupted country, ruled by criminals, thieves and a bunch of killers, all packaged nicely. This is the true picture my friend, so I am wondering that we even have this piece of s. internet here, that is the least of our worries. 21st century my A, we are living in the stone ages, and imagine, we are in Europe (at least physically). As long as we are living like animals, in extreme poverty and corruption, they can do whatever they want, and plunder and pillage and use us for anything they want.
All in all, long live Europe, democracy, equality, and so and so, and every other garbage they propagate on TV today, only an extreme fool or a mentally ill person would believe that !
BH, may I ask you where do you live? It sounds crazy
Yeah,our internet sucks,but i still find it usable for preforming every-day tasks,because surfing on internet is no problem for me,and i have 6 mb/s.The real problem for me is that my downlad speed on intenet s 1 mb/s,so it takes whole day to download a game,which is so shitty.I have no idea why….
In Wales I have (at best) 4Mb/s !
And I pay €25 for it. In Britain you’re ok if you’re in a city but if you live in the countryside, it’s rubbish……
That is indeed pretty bad!
Absolute speed is not important , it is the load on the Internet that is , and connections to other countries .
Portugal for example has major problems in having good response times outside the country .