Lebanon’s leading English daily newspaper recently cited African nations as benchmarks for Internet speeds. Citing Net Index by Ookla speed data, The Daily Star wrote:

…Lebanon’s information economy is stymied by connectivity rates that trail behind states like Zambia and Tanzania, where speeds are twice as fast while GDP per capita ratios are one tenth that of Lebanon.”

The article also noted how most of sub-Saharan Africa ranks ahead of Lebanon in terms of Internet speeds.

Not to demean the development in other nations, but it’s refreshing to see Africa used as a point of reference. And, it’s impressive that nations like Zambia and Tanzania can have such good Internet speeds per GDP per capita.

That said, Lebanon is still similar to many African nations in terms of broadband availability (the Net Index is by no means a comprehensive way to gauge connectivity speeds, anyway). Promises to secure more bandwidth and ICT infrastructure have been made and broken for years. Fortunately for Lebanon, the nation’s bandwidth is expected to open up as the I-ME-WE undersea cable (with landing stations in Egypt, among other places) activated in the coming months.