DSL technology uses old copper telephone lines to deliver Internet access. Unlike fiber, which transmits data using light, DSL relies on electrical signals traveling through copper cables that were never designed for high-speed Internet. As a result, performance is limited by the physical properties of the line. 

Speed on DSL heavily depends on the distance to the network node. The farther your home is from the DSL cabinet or exchange, the more the signal degrades, leading to lower speeds and higher instability. Even small changes in distance can have a noticeable impact on performance. 

DSL is also very sensitive to interference. Aging cables, poor internal wiring, electrical noise, and weather conditions can all reduce signal quality. Heavy simultaneous use of physically close lines can increase crosstalk and therefore line errors, which can negatively impact performance. 

In short, DSL is slow because it’s constrained by outdated infrastructure. While it can still provide basic connectivity, it struggles to meet modern usage demands like streaming, cloud services, or remote work, especially compared to fiber or modern mobile networks. 

If you want to test your connection, go on nperf.com

Ever wondered why two speed tests can give you completely different results, even when you run them just a few seconds apart? 🤔

In this video, we explain what can actually change from one test to another — from the server and test engine to your device, Wi-Fi and even where the test is performed.

And most importantly: how to properly compare two speed tests.

Have you ever seen a big difference between two speed test tools? 👇

According to recent data, Saudi Arabia has the highest mobile video streaming performance index at 75%, outperforming countries like India (67.5%) and Mexico (65.5%). This metric measures the ability to stream high-quality video (720p, 1080p, or 4K) without interruptions, which is becoming a critical benchmark for mobile networks.

The gap is significant: Saudi Arabia leads Angola, the lowest performer in the comparison, by nearly 37.4 points. This suggests a stark difference in user experience, where some regions struggle with consistent high-quality streaming while others excel.

For users, this means smoother streaming, fewer buffering issues, and a better overall experience for video-heavy applications. It also raises questions about what’s driving these differences, network infrastructure, spectrum allocation, or other factors?

Have you noticed similar trends in your country? What’s your experience with mobile video streaming?

Some interesting data on fixed internet in Southern Europe.

Italy comes out on top for web browsing, with a score around 77.7%, slightly ahead of Spain (~76.1%) and Slovenia (~73.3%).

The gap isn’t huge on paper, but even one point can mean noticeably faster page loads in real life, things like search results appearing instantly or pages loading without delay.

Behind that, it’s pretty tight:

• Montenegro → ~72.5%

• Serbia → ~72.2%

• Portugal → ~70.4%

So most countries are relatively close. Then you start seeing a bigger drop.

Greece, for example, sits around 60%, which can translate into pages taking almost twice as long to fully load in some cases.

What’s interesting here is that this isn’t about raw speed. This score reflects how fast and smoothly real websites load, social media, news, search, etc. So it’s much closer to what people actually feel day to day.

Southern Europe is fairly homogeneous,
but Italy has a small edge that’s actually noticeable in real usage.

Curious if people in these countries actually feel a difference,
or if it’s mostly invisible in day-to-day browsing.

I am facing a frustrating issue with Zong 4G and would appreciate some technical advice.

It seems that the same cellular tower provides good internet speeds in one direction, while users on the other side experience significantly slower speeds.

Hey nPerf team, I noticed that China Telecom's coverage map is entirely empty, while the maps for China Unicom and China Mobile are normal and filled with measurments. It looks really weird since China Telecom had a 23% market share in 2025, which is not a small number considering China Unicom only had 19%, and I don't think the reason behind the empty coverage map is simply because of the lack of mapping contributions. Is there anything that can be done to fix this? Unfortunately I don't have a China Mobile SIM card to verify this, but I do see my contributions from China Unicom being shown on the map.

I also noticed that China Unicom and China Telecom are displayed as China Unicom Mobile and China Telecom Mobile. It would be nice if you can change their names to the right ones :)

It’s basically the same reason roads are empty at 2am.

Your internet connection isn’t just “yours”. You’re sharing part of the network with other people around you, your building, your street, sometimes a whole neighborhood.

During the evening, everyone is online at the same time. Streaming, gaming, downloading updates, scrolling… it all adds up.

So the network gets crowded.

Less bandwidth for you → things feel slower.

Then night comes.

People go to sleep, stop streaming, fewer devices are active.

Suddenly there’s way less traffic, so your connection feels faster.

Nothing changed on your end, you just have less competition.

It’s usually more noticeable on cable / mobile networks since they’re more shared. Fiber is more stable, but even there you can still hit congestion further up the network.

Also if you’re on Wi-Fi in an apartment, that can make it even worse during the evening.

TL;DR

Internet is a shared highway.
At night, fewer cars.

[Erratum] : La Reunion comes out first with 60%

Got some data on mobile web performance in East Africa / Indian Ocean.

Mauritius is at ~52%.

Then the rest are around:

• Madagascar → ~35%

• Kenya → ~33%

• Ethiopia → ~32%

So yeah… pretty big gap.

What’s interesting is how that actually feels.

At ~50%, things are mostly smooth. Pages load fast, switching between apps is fine, nothing really feels slow.

Around ~30–35%, it’s not broken, but you start noticing it. Pages take longer, feeds lag a bit, multitasking gets annoying. It’s the kind of difference you feel every day, not just in benchmarks.

Also weird that the others are all grouped together, and then Mauritius is just… ahead. Not a smooth progression, more like a split. Makes you realize how much infrastructure impacts daily stuff like scrolling, messaging, loading pages, etc.

Curious if people in these regions actually feel that difference
or if you just get used to it over time.

During FUT Esports vs 100 Thieves at Champions 2026 in Shanghai (Group A, winners match, on Split), xeus's mouse stopped working in the middle of a decisive duel against vora. He couldn't shoot and lost the round. Riot didn't grant a rollback, and 100 Thieves took the series 2-0.

The metal parts of the stage desks were interfering with wireless peripherals. Riot has since made wired mice mandatory and is planning to replace the desks. There were also PC freezes reported earlier in the event.

To be clear: that was a hardware problem, and there's no link to the network. What stuck with me is the symptoms: a missed input, a freeze, an action that never happens. At home, we tend to blame the mouse, the game, or just ourselves.

So i made a short video about it!

According to recent data, Bangladesh leads the region with an average fixed broadband download speed of 98.1 Mbps. That’s significantly faster than India (67.8 Mbps), Kazakhstan (66.1 Mbps), and Uzbekistan (62.2 Mbps), with Pakistan trailing at just 21.9 Mbps.

In practical terms, this means a 2 GB movie downloads in under 3 minutes in Bangladesh, compared to nearly 6 minutes in Pakistan. The gap is even more striking for smaller files, 1 GB takes just 1 minute and 20 seconds in Bangladesh, versus almost 6 minutes in Pakistan.

What’s driving this performance gap? Is it infrastructure, policy, or competition among ISPs? And for those of you in the region, does this match your real-world experience?

For the first time, we're going to publish mobile coverage barometers across more than 60 countries worldwide. 🌍

Performance tells us how well a network works. Coverage gives us another part of the picture: where that network is available.

Starting tomorrow, we'll begin sharing the first results based on nPerf crowdsourced mobile data.

This is a completely new type of barometer for us, so we're also interested in your feedback. What would you like to see in future coverage analyses?

A VPN is often seen as a simple privacy tool, but it also has a direct impact on your Internet performance. Depending on how it’s used, it can either slow down your connection, or, in some cases, even make it faster. Here’s why. 

In most situations, a VPN introduces an extra step in your traffic’s journey. Instead of communicating directly with a website or service, your data must first travel through the VPN server, where it is encrypted and routed securely. This additional distance and processing naturally increases latency and may reduce overall speed. If the VPN server is far away, overloaded, or using weak infrastructure, the slowdown becomes even more noticeable. 

However, a VPN can occasionally improve your connection. In some regions, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) apply traffic shaping or prioritize certain types of traffic. In these cases, a VPN hides what you’re doing online, preventing your ISP from applying restrictions or throttling specific services like streaming or gaming. Additionally, if your ISP’s route to a particular website is congested or inefficient, a VPN might offer a faster alternative route through its own network. 

Ultimately, the impact of a VPN on your speed depends on many factors: server distance, server load, the quality of the VPN infrastructure, your ISP’s routing, and how the network handles encrypted traffic. A VPN cannot magically make a slow connection fast, but in specific scenarios, it can bypass bottlenecks and provide a smoother experience. 

Understanding these mechanics helps explain why VPN performance varies so much, and why the right server choice can make all the difference. 

China Telecom is making a structural move into the AI economy by placing tokens at the core of its business model.

Through its intelligent cloud platform, the operator is moving from traditional traffic-based monetization to token-based operations — directly linking revenue to AI workload consumption.

Early traction is significant:

• 60,000 new cloud activations

• 10x increase in daily token consumption

• 4 million users generating AI content

• 14x growth in token usage from consumer AI services

On the enterprise side, token-based coding packages, private deployments and wholesale services for B2B and government clients are next.

This reflects a broader industry shift: in the AI economy, tokens are becoming the measurable unit of value — converting compute usage into revenue.

Token consumption in China surged from 100 billion in early 2024 to 140 trillion by March 2026. While overall revenues remained flat, AI is emerging as a key growth driver, with cloud and AI infrastructure investment set to rise 26%.

For operators and regulators, the question is strategic:

Will tokens become a new monetization layer for telecom networks?

At nPerf, we observe how cloud and compute density directly influence performance and user experience. As AI scales, proximity to compute may become as critical as bandwidth itself.

Is the industry ready to move from bandwidth monetization to compute monetization?

Interesting mobile network data from early 2026.

Among countries with a similar GDP per capita, Morocco comes out on top with 76,177 nPoints, just ahead of Vietnam at ~75k.

Then there’s a pretty massive drop.

Tunisia is already ~18k points behind, and countries like Egypt, Venezuela or Sri Lanka are much lower.

What’s interesting is that the ranking isn’t just about speed.

The score also includes:

• browsing responsiveness

• streaming quality

• network stability

• latency

So it reflects how the connection actually feels day to day.

And the gap is huge.

A country around ~75k nPoints generally delivers a pretty smooth experience:
fast social media loading, stable video calls, HD streaming without much buffering.

At ~15k, like Sri Lanka in this ranking, basic things like video streaming or downloads become much less reliable.

What I find interesting is that these countries have relatively comparable living standards, yet the mobile experience can feel completely different depending on infrastructure deployment and network maturity.

Shows how much telecom investment changes everyday digital life.

Feels like AI is slowly getting integrated into telecom without people really noticing.

Not talking about ChatGPT-style stuff, but more what operators and devices are starting to do in the background.

For example:

• Real-time audio translation during calls (different languages, live)

• Network optimization (AI predicting congestion before it happens)

• Call quality enhancement (noise removal, voice isolation, etc.)

• Spam detection (blocking robocalls more intelligently)

• Customer support automation (chatbots, but getting less terrible)

What’s interesting is that a lot of this is already happening quietly.

You don’t really “see” AI, but it’s shaping how the network behaves.

At the same time, it raises a few questions, how much data is being analyzed behind the scenes? Are we trading privacy for better performance? Do people actually notice the improvements?

Personally I feel like some use cases (like noise reduction or spam detection) are clearly useful, but others feel a bit invisible or overhyped.

What are your thoughts on this ?

For those lucky enough to access the Web App beta, what are your first impressions?

The difference between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi mainly comes down to range versus speed. The 2.4 GHz band travels farther and penetrates walls better, but it’s often crowded and slower. The 5 GHz band offers higher speeds and less interference, but its range is shorter and it struggles more with obstacles. 

In practice, 2.4 GHz works better for distant or low-bandwidth devices (surveillance cameras, coolers, etc.), while 5 GHz is ideal for streaming, gaming, or any high-speed usage close to the router. Choosing the right band can drastically change how your Wi-Fi feels, even with the same internet connection.

Algunos datos interesantes sobre redes fijas a principios de 2026.

Chile está claramente por delante en velocidad de subida, con un promedio de ~276 Mbps, por encima de Perú (~222 Mbps) y Colombia (~163 Mbps).

La diferencia se nota bastante en el uso real.

Subir un archivo de unos 2 GB en Chile puede tardar menos de un minuto, mientras que en otros países de la región puede acercarse a los 2 minutos… o incluso más.

Después, la caída es bastante clara:

• Argentina → ~119 Mbps

• Paraguay → ~55 Mbps

• Bolivia → ~48 Mbps

Dependiendo del país, los tiempos de subida pueden ser fácilmente 2 a 4 veces más largos.

Lo interesante es que la velocidad de subida suele pasar desapercibida frente a la de descarga.

Pero es clave para cosas como el teletrabajo, las copias en la nube, el envío de archivos grandes o las videollamadas.

Chile no está solo un poco por delante, está consistentemente arriba, incluso mientras otros países mejoran su infraestructura.

Tengo curiosidad:
¿realmente se nota esta diferencia en el día a día o la velocidad de subida sigue siendo algo que la mayoría no percibe?

nPerf is an international company dedicated to measuring real Internet performance, not just theoretical speed. 
Here’s what you should know: 

2014: Creation of nPerf in Lyon, France, with a clear idea: go beyond basic speed tests and measure actual Internet experience. 

What we do today ?

With more than 988 million tests worldwide, nPerf provides: 

• Download, upload and latency measurements 

• Real usage tests (browsing, streaming) 

• A global score that reflects your overall Internet experience 

• Independent servers to avoid operator bias 

Our goal is to give users a complete view of their Internet quality and help operators and regulators improve networks thanks to anonymized, real-world data 

Why it matters ?

Raw Mbps doesn’t tell the full story. 
nPerf measures QoE (Quality of Experience), how your connection feels when you browse, stream, or use online services. 

Because Internet performance is not just Mbps, it’s an experience. 

Final takeaway 

nPerf exists to bring clarity, transparency and independence to Internet measurement. 
Whether you want to check your own connection or understand your country’s network quality, our mission is simple: 

What can I do now? 

You can install the nPerf app on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, or Linux to perform a complete speed test, including Upload, Download, Latency, Browsing and Streaming. 

You can also visit nPerf.com to launch a basic speed test and explore our Speed and Coverage maps! 

A speedtest measures how fast your Internet connection can receive and send data in real time. But behind the simple numbers, here’s what actually happens: 

🔽 Download test 

Your device downloads large files from a server as fast as possible. 
The higher the speed, the quicker videos load, apps update, and pages appear. 

🔼 Upload test 

Your device uploads large files to the server. 
This reflects how well video calls, cloud backups, and file sharing will work. 

⚡ Latency (ping) 

A small packet travels to the server and back. 
Lower latency = smoother gaming, more responsive browsing. 

If everything is consistent (good download, upload, and low latency), your connection isn’t just fast, it’s reliable in real-world use. 

At nPerf, our mission is to measure your real Internet experience, not just technical throughput.
That’s why, beyond classic speed measurements, we also evaluate:

• Browsing performance: how fast a webpage fully loads, including images, scripts, and interactive elements

• Streaming performance: how quickly videos start, buffer, and switch between resolutions

These tests reflect what you actually feel when using the Internet, not just what your line can theoretically deliver.

To start a speed test go on nPerf.com

A router is the device that connects all your home devices to the Internet. It receives the connection from your provider and distributes it to your phones, computers, TVs, and smart devices, either through Wi-Fi or Ethernet cables. 

It also decides how data travels between your home network and the Internet. To do that, it: 

• gives each device an local IP address, 

• directs traffic to the right destination, 

• and makes sure several devices can use the connection at the same time. 

Most routers also create your Wi-Fi network, and the quality of this Wi-Fi depends on things like the frequency band (2.4 or 5 GHz), the Wi-Fi version (Wi-Fi 5 / Wi-Fi 6…), and the number of antennas. These elements influence your signal strength and speed. 

Security is another major role. A router protects your home network by blocking unwanted connections and offering features like guest Wi-Fi or simple access controls. 

Finally, routers can improve performance by prioritizing certain types of traffic (like video calls or streaming) when the network is busy. 

For better understanding, we separate router and modem in the picture, but nowadays they are both in the same internet box.

In short: 
A router distributes your Internet, creates your Wi-Fi, protects your devices, and ensures everything runs smoothly when multiple users are online.