The UAE retained its position as the Middle East and Africa’s leading internet performance market in 2025, ranking second globally for fixed broadband while maintaining top-10 mobile speeds, according to analysis based on Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index. The results highlight widening performance gaps across the region, driven largely by infrastructure investment, 5G deployment timelines, and regulatory intervention.
GCC countries continued to dominate regional rankings, with the UAE recording a three-month median mobile download speed of 691.76 Mbps in the fourth quarter of 2025. Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia also remained among the global top performers for mobile connectivity, while GCC markets maintained strong positions in fixed broadband performance. The UAE’s performance reflects sustained investment in advanced network technologies, including 5G-Advanced deployments and multi-carrier aggregation upgrades.
North Africa recorded the most dramatic ranking shifts following recent 5G launches. Morocco posted one of the largest global improvements, climbing 22 places in the mobile rankings after launching 5G in late 2025, while Algeria rose 11 positions following its own rollout. Tunisia experienced early gains but later slipped as network capacity struggled to keep pace with rising demand, and Egypt saw more modest improvements due to limited spectrum allocations shared between 4G and 5G services.
Regulatory intervention also played a key role in performance gains elsewhere. Bahrain improved significantly in fixed broadband rankings after regulators increased minimum speed requirements from 100 Mbps to 300 Mbps, while Oman advanced in mobile rankings through accelerated investment, new carrier launches, and the refarming of legacy spectrum for 5G use.
Saudi Arabia demonstrated strong global competitiveness, ranking ninth worldwide for mobile performance and placing third among G20 nations, ahead of several major economies. Meanwhile, Sub-Saharan Africa showed mixed progress, with only a few countries entering the global top 100 for mobile performance despite ongoing fibre expansion efforts in select markets.
The analysis underscores that connectivity performance across MEA is increasingly shaped by investment capacity, spectrum strategy, and regulatory policy rather than urbanisation alone, with coordinated infrastructure development and policy reform emerging as key drivers of future network performance improvements.
