Uganda’s Internet is Expensive, Slow, and of Poor Quality-Global Report

A fourth annual edition of the Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) study has revealed that Uganda’s Internet is expensive and of poor quality.

The report placed Uganda in the 98^th position in the world regarding digital wellbeing.

“That is out of 117 countries, or 92% of the global population,” reads part of the Report.

Out of the five fundamental digital life pillars, the study says that Uganda’s worst score is for internet affordability (ranking 116th globally), and the best is for e-security (66th).

“Uganda’s e-government services come 92nd, while internet quality and e-infrastructure rank 107th and 110th, respectively. In the face of waging inflation, fixed broadband internet has become less affordable worldwide for the second year in a row, prying the global digital divide even further,” it reads

The DQL study is conducted by the cybersecurity company Surfshark. It evaluates countries based on five fundamental digital wellbeing pillars: internet quality, e-government, e-infrastructure, internet affordability, and e-security.

“This year, Uganda comes at the lower end of the index, ranking 98th and only making it into the top 100 in the final index. The country ranks 11th in Africa. The country joins the DQL Index for the first time this year. Out of all index pillars, Uganda’s weakest spot is internet affordability, which needs to improve by 27420% to match the best-ranking country’s result (Israel),” it reads

According to the Report, Internet quality in Uganda is very weak, and on a global scale mobile internet is better than fixed

“Uganda’s internet quality, considering internet speed, stability, and growth, ranks 107th in the world and is 35% worse than the global average. Regarding internet speed alone, Uganda’s mobile internet ranks higher than fixed broadband in the global ranking, operating at 20.6 Mbps/s (104th globally). Meanwhile, the fixed broadband internet comes 108th (16.3 Mbps/s),” it adds

Compared to Kenya, the study revealed that Uganda’s mobile internet is 14% slower, while broadband is 16% slower.

“In comparison, Singapore’s residents enjoyed mobile speeds up to 104 Mbps/s and fixed to as much as 261 Mbps/s – that’s the fastest internet in the world this year,” it reads

Internet in Uganda is not affordable compared to global standards, there’s a lot of room for improvement

“Uganda’s internet affordability ranks 116th in the world. Residents can buy 1GB of mobile internet in Uganda for 41 minutes and 50 seconds of work per month, 6 times more than in Kenya. However, compared to Israel, which has the most affordable mobile internet on the planet (5s per 1GB), Ugandans work 510 times more,” it reads.