NET.mede carried out 743 thousand Internet speed tests in 2022

In 2022, about 743 thousand Internet access speed tests were performed on NET.medehttps://netmede.pt/, which corresponds to an average of 2035 tests per day. Compared to 2021, the number of tests decreased by 39% (473 thousand less tests). 2020 and 2021 were characterised by a higher number of speed tests following the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to a higher demand for the NET.mede service by users.

The distribution of tests by type of access (67% carried out on residential fixed accesses and 24% on mobile accesses) has changed mainly as a result of the fall in the number of tests carried out on national fixed accesses (-392 thousand or -44%).

Tests on residential fixed accesses continued to be most frequent between 4pm and 10pm. For mobile accesses, the hours with the highest number of tests were in the morning (10-11am) and in the afternoon (3-4pm).

During 2022, speed tests associated to residential fixed accesses and mobile fixed accesses were carried out in all 308 municipalities in Portugal. The regions of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and the North recorded the highest number of tests for both fixed and mobile accesses.

Lisbon was the municipality with the highest number of speed tests in 2022, both in fixed residential accesses and in mobile accesses. Sintra was the municipality with the second highest number of tests in fixed residential accesses and Amadora in mobile accesses.

Half of (median) speed tests carried out on NET.mede during 2022 found:

• for download speeds, 108 Mbps or more in fixed residential accesses and 15 Mbps or more in mobile accesses;
• for upload speeds, 72 Mbps or more in fixed residential accesses and 7 Mbps or more in mobile accesses;
• latency, 13 milliseconds (ms) or less in fixed residential accesses and 37 ms or less in mobile accesses.

The median results would be better in mobile accesses if only the tests of accesses with direct connection to the mobile network carried out in the app were taken into account (56 Mbps download speed, 17 Mbps upload speed and 32 ms latency), and even better if only the tests carried out in the App specifically on the 5G mobile network were taken into account (185 Mbps download speed, 34 Mbps upload speed and 25 ms latency).

Compared to the previous year, there was an improvement in the median results for residential fixed accesses, with increases in download speeds (+37%) and upload speeds (+63%). The exception was the median for latency, which remained the same as in 2021. For mobile access, all median results analysed improved compared to the previous year, with increases in download (+53%) and upload speeds (+45%) and a decrease in latency (-10%).

The evolution may reflect, among other things, in the case of fixed access, the subscription of users to offers with higher speeds and, in the case of mobile access, the execution of tests on the 5G network. The impact of the pandemic on the results has also been reduced.