Mobile Internet: Faster than WiFi?

Dear reader, I have an important question to ask you. Given the option of using WiFi or your mobile data, which would you choose? Well, your answer should be based on your country of residence. WiFi is no longer the absolute best connection all over the world, and people need to start adjusting their internet habits to this fact. Read on for the full story.

Mobile Internet – Faster than WiFi?

Mobile Internet Outdoes WiFi Speeds in 33 countries – Full Story

It used to be common knowledge that WiFi is faster than Mobile Internet, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Open Signal, a company that maps wireless coverage, conducted a study on 80 countries from different developmental stages to see which connection is faster: WiFi or Mobile data. The study concluded that people living in 33 of the studied countries actually have faster internet speeds when on mobile data than on WiFi.

This shows an interesting new trend that, for some reason, isn’t being given much thought by device makers. Ever since our phones started connecting to the internet, device makers have manufactured phones that favor connecting to a WiFi signal instead of using the 2G or 3G networks. This has persisted till this day, even though the LTE networks we now have are significantly faster than those of the past. With talk about 5G hitting the market soon, we will be seeing faster mobile connections than ever before. In other words, it may be time for manufacturers and telecommunication companies to change their approach to phone data.

List of Countries with Faster Mobile Internet Speeds

Here is the list of the countries that have faster internet speeds on mobile data than on WiFi. The countries are in order of the Mbps difference between each connection:

1. Australia
2. Lebanon
3. Qatar
4. Oman
5. Greece
6. Czech Republic
7. Myanmar
8. Iran
9. Turkey
10. Bolivia
11. Croatia
12. South Africa
13. Egypt
14. Austria
15. Guatemala
16. Tunisia
17. United Arab Emirates
18. Ecuador
19. Uzbekistan
20. Servia
21. Morocco
22. Colombia
23. France
24. Slovakia
25. Kenya
26. Pakistan
27. Dominican Republic
28. Kuwait
29. Taiwan
30. Saudi Arabia
31. Mexico
32. Costa Rica
33. Algeria

Which Connection Should You Use for Your Online Safety?

As usual, here at the VPN Guru, we put safety and privacy at the top of our list of concerns. Faster internet speeds aside, we thoroughly believe that your choices need to take security into consideration. When deciding between WiFi connections and mobile data, especially in a public space, it’s preferable to stick with your phone’s data rather than risk an unsecured public WiFi connection.

WiFi, especially if it’s public, is easily hackable. In fact, anyone can hack into a WiFi enabled device since you don’t really need special equipment to do so. Cellular data, on the other hand, is a little more complicated. For a hacker to gain access to your 3G, 4G, or LTE connection, they would need special technology and expensive equipment to get through the encryptions.

So, our advice to you is to use your mobile data whenever you can. Data cap concerns aside, if you have the option of connecting to mobile Internet rather than public WiFi, you should definitely go for it.

Mobile Data Speeds – Final Thoughts

So, now that you’ve found out that WiFi isn’t always the best choice, are you going to change your connection preferences? Personally, I try to find a balance between keeping my devices as secure as possible and trying not to go over my data caps. If you’re anything like me, then you’re going to have to use public WiFi at some point or the other. Don’t worry, you can always take some measures to ensure that your public connection is as safe as it possibly could. Make sure to have a credible VPN, like ExpressVPN, with you at all times, and to use it religiously whenever you need to connect to public WiFi.