Assessing spatial disparities in Internet quality using speed tests
The quality of Internet connections is increasingly important for people’s daily lives
as work and access to services move to the digital sphere. Likewise, businesses and
public agencies need to rely more and more on the digital networks for service delivery.
However, the way individuals experience the Internet can vary substantially within
countries, notably along the urban-rural continuum. Measuring such variation in a
consistent way is important to understand where intervention is most needed to deliver
better connections to everyone. This paper assesses within-country spatial disparities
in connectivity across OECD and G20 countries, using publicly available data on the
speed of connections from an Internet speed test provider, applying consistent spatial
definitions – i.e. the OECD classification of regions and the Degree of Urbanisation.
Using data from Denmark, it finds that the use of speed tests to assess the quality
of internet connection is coherent with national sources. Results show that, in OECD
countries, regions far from metropolitan areas can experience up to 24% slower Internet
speeds than the national average. Overall, cities have 75% higher speed of connection
than rural areas, on average.
Available from May 04, 2023
In series:OECD Regional Development Papersview more titles