Ookla Net Metrics' free network speed test speedtest.net is so widely used that even the federal government has recognized it as a reliable tool for measuring wireless network conditions. Friday, the company published results of some 57,000 user-initiated iPhone speedtests in the U.S., which showed users on the AT&T network getting average speeds substantially higher than iPhone users on Verizon Wireless.
After publishing the data, the story got some good coverage pitting iPhone against iPhone. But it should have come as no surprise to anyone who knows wireless technologies that HSPA was faster than EV-DO rev. A. On paper, HSPA's theoretical max speed is 7.2 Mbps, and EV-DO rev. A's is only 3.1 Mbps. It's pretty widely accepted.
Later in the day, though, Ookla's Co-Founder Doug Suttles released a much broader list, one that included every wireless carrier in the world where more than 100 users tested their iPhone speeds. With this list, Ookla revealed where the fastest iPhone in the world can be found.
With an average downlink speed of 3331 Kbps and an average uplink speed of 1278 Kbps, Israel's Pelephone really lived up to its name (in Hebrew, literally "Wonderphone") and had the highest average iPhone speeds of 104 international wireless carriers.
Pelephone was followed by Austria's A1 which averaged 3100 Kbps downlink, and 1344 Kbps uplink. Taking third place was Hong Kong's CSL Ltd. with 2979 Kbps downlink and 1161 Kbps uplink. Finally, two Canadian carriers rounded out the top five, with Bell Canada showing an average of 2942 Kbps downlink and 1330 uplink, and TELUS with 2819 Kbps downlink and 1538 Kbps uplink.
AT&T and Verizon, by comparison, averaged 1717Kbps/712Kbps and 840 Kbps/502 Kbps respectively, but had much larger sample sets than all other carriers.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
