Ookla tested Wi-Fi and mobile speed at 48 airports to see who met the FCC’s 100Mbps/20Mbps speed benchmark
The accessibility of the internet has now become a big part of travel, from online plane tickets, access to emails and documents, or just to stream entertainment. For major airports, providing their hundreds of thousands of travellers access to reliable and fast Wi-Fi and mobile networks is a crucial service they have to provide.
Ookla analyzed Speedtest data from 48 major airports around the world, including one Canadian airport. The analysis compared the airports’ median mobile and Wi-Fi speeds to the benchmark set by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload.
Notably, the FCC increased its high-speed internet benchmark in 2024. The U.S. benchmark effectively doubles what Canada’s Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) set back in 2016, a benchmark of 50Mbps download and 10Mbps upload.
Their first major finding was that out of the 48 airports, only three met the benchmark set by the FCC for both categories, mobile and Wi-Fi. These three were Toronto Pearson in Canada, Hangzhou Xiaoshan in China, and Phoenix Sky Harbor in the U.S.
The second key finding highlighted a gap in performance between mobile connections and Wi-Fi. 21 airports were able to meet the speed benchmark with mobile connections, while only 12 were able to meet that same benchmark with Wi-Fi.
The third and fourth key findings were regarding varying performance between and even within regions. None of the airports in Europe and Latin America met the benchmark on either connection type, while multiple airports in North America and China did. Some airports provided excellent speeds compared to the benchmark, like Istanbul Airport with download speeds up to 600Mbps on mobile connections, and San Francisco International Airport with download speeds pushing 200Mbps on Wi-Fi. While some provided outstanding speeds compared to the benchmark, others were very far off, like Mexico City International Airport, which fell below download speeds of 20Mbps on both connections.
The last key finding from Ookla’s analysis was how widely the performance of 5G varied across airports. Airports like Istanbul had median 5G download speeds in the 900s, pushing 1Gbps, while other airports like Indira Gandhi in Delhi had median 5G download speeds just barely above the 20Mbps line.
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Header image credit: Shutterstock
Source: Ookla
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