The Implications of Current Internet Speeds for Users in the Baltic

Average internet speeds are a complicated topic that tells only a fragmented picture of a country's infrastructure. Some highly developed nations offer lower speeds, while other developing nations top the list in average bandwidth availability. The Baltic countries find themselves towards the middle of the pack on this average internet speed list. Though not ideal for citizens, these speeds which are not among the fastest don't produce many appreciable negative effects for average users.

Baltic Average Performance

For internet speed metrics, several major websites collect and compare world performance. According to this data, Lithuania is the fastest performing in the Baltics, offering average broadband and mobile speeds of 103.26 and 84.8 Mbps respectively. Latvia claims average broadband speeds of 81 Mbps, while its mobile average speeds sit around 64.42 Mbps. Estonia features slightly lower average broadband speeds of 76.46 Mbps, and slightly faster average mobile speeds of 72.07 Mbps.

For reference, the highest average broadband speeds are found in Singapore at 264.15 Mbps, while the fastest average mobile speeds come from the UAE, reaching 269.41 Mbps. The lowest overall measurable speeds according to this data are found in Cuba, with average broadband and mobile speeds of 2.19 Mbps and 3.33 Mbps respectively.

What Does This All Mean for Users?

While an average speed is a limited measure of what each online user in the Baltics can expect, it can still illustrate the kinds of uses that are possible. For comparison, we'll use the lowest average speed on this list 64.42 Mbps as a baseline.

For low-data uses, this speed will be more than enough to deliver what users want without compromise. Consider a typical international use like playing online casinos with the NJ casino online app. Accessing this app means downloading a few dozen megabytes of data from the Apple or Google Play stores, browsing the service, and downloading and playing the likes of slots and table games. These are all common forms of activities enjoyed by Baltic users, and they’ll never face performance hurdles while running these games at this lower average speed.

The more demanding uses from most users are seen in ultra-HD video streams from a service like YouTube or Hulu. Even in this case, the demands on an internet connection are only around 20 Mbps at 4K, still less than a third of the lowest average speed.

The only real confounding issue here is that bandwidth is shared over all connections on one network. This means that four simultaneous users on a 60 Mbps connection are effectively running on 15 Mbps each, though this divide is rarely so well-managed or split.

The takeaway from these examples is that while average speeds in the Baltics aren't the highest, they're still far more than most users or households will need. Though there might be exceptions in video gaming or download-heavy users, our current systems are easy enough to cater to most uses. While speeds will undoubtedly increase in the future, and faster and cheaper connectivity plans will become more easily available, don't feel like you require a drastic upgrade, at least not for a few years yet.