Brazilian capital surpasses Rio and São Paulo in mobile broadband speed

Brazil’s capital Brasília surpassed major urban centers of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in mobile broadband speed, according to a new report.

According to the research on mobile performance by mobile and broadband network intelligence firm Ookla based on data from Internet access performance metrics tool Speedtest, Brasília’s median mobile download speed reached 31.44 Mbps, the fastest among the country’s most populous cities during the third quarter of 2021.

After Brasília, Curitiba had the second fastest mobile download speed at an average of 29.35 Mbps, followed by Rio de Janeiro at 25.14 Mbps and São Paulo with 25.08 Mbps. The slowest median speeds were found in Recife, in the northeast of the country, at 18.65 Mbps and Manaus, at the bottom of the list with 18.37 Mbps.

Regarding the consistency of each operator’s performance in the country, the report has found that Claro was the fastest mobile operator among top providers in Brazil in Q3 2021; in terms of consistency, 88.2% of results showed at least a 5 Mbps minimum download speed for Claro, and a 1 Mbps minimum upload speed.

According to the Ookla report, there was no statistically fastest provider for median 5G download speed, though Claro showed 65.92 Mbps, Vivo 64.61 Mbps and TIM 58.14 Mbps.

In terms of the median latency for top mobile providers in Brazil during the third quarter of the year, TIM had the lowest latency at 26 ms, according to the report. When it comes to device information, Ookla’s analysis on some of the fastest phones in Brazil found the iPhone 12 5G delivered the fastest median download speed during in the with 53.28 Mbps.

A separate study, published by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee in August has found that Brazil’s connected population relies mostly on smartphones to access the Internet as PC penetration remains low within financially vulnerable citizens. According to the research, 58% of Brazilians only access the web through their phones.