5 Countries With the Fastest Public Wi-Fi in 2016

Wi-Fi technology has only been around for a couple of decades, but demand for high-speed public access has exploded over the last few years.  

Many of the companies innovating in this space are located in the United States. However, in terms of how the U.S. compares to other countries in public Wi-Fi speed — it’s barely a contender. The U.S. ranks number 19 on the list of countries with the fastest average public Wi-Fi download speeds according to Rotten Wi-Fi.  

Here are the five countries with the fastest public Wi-Fi as of 2016. 

Lithuania 

Topping the list of fastest public Wi-Fi is Lithuania, with average download speeds of 16.6 Mbps, nearly double that of the U.S.

This small Baltic country seems very focused on promoting itself as a good option for businesses to set up shop as it tries to attract more international investment.

This seems to be fueling the focus on tech-forward thinking, including investment in helping to spread public Wi-Fi in the country. 

Singapore 

Singapore has moved up the list in recent years, which makes sense as this small island-country between Malaysia and Indonesia has become a financial and technological tent pole of the region.

The Singaporean government has set up a program offering free public Wi-Fi via thousands of hotspots across the island called ‘Wireless@SG.’

Last year, the government announced that it is upgrading the hotspots to faster speeds and that they will double the number to 20,000 across the country by 2018. 

Switzerland

Switzerland is serious about its public Wi-Fi — locals and visitors can access the internet in public areas like parks, beaches, museums, public squares, and other open areas.

The country is also known for its skiing, and one operator there is combining the two.

A resort near Davos recently opened a new chairlift that comes equipped with sensors that adjust the seat height before the skier boards, heated seats — and free public Wi-Fi for the 8 minute ride to the top.

Denmark

Denmark wants to expand its public Wi-Fi reach further through an initiative that would see thousands of new lamp posts across the country connected with services beyond just offering light.

As announced in 2014, the long-term vision is to have the lamp posts see coming bicyclists and increase their brightness accordingly, sense when there’s a dumpster that needs to be emptied — and also serve as free public Wi-Fi hot spots. The program is being developed in Copenhagen in conjunction with Cisco as part of its ‘smart cities’ initiative. 

United Kingdom

Though the U.K. makes the top five on this list, the government there wants to 

upgrade its connectivity infrastructure, particularly in London as a means to keep its status as a financial center of Europe. 

Partner companies are working to install hundreds of devices in government fixtures (like lamp posts, etc.) throughout the City of London in 2017 to bring better connectivity to the area.

Those hot spots will reportedly have speeds up to 1Gbps — nearly 100 times as fast as average download speeds across the U.K. now.