Mobile Internet Speed Rating in Russia 2024-2025

The World Wide Web has long since turned from a luxury into a means of existence. People everywhere use digital data when applying for a job, at school or college, buying groceries, ordering airline tickets or booking a hotel room, etc. And they often do this away from their PCs - on smartphones, using mobile Internet. And there are few things that are as annoying as a long loading time for the desired page.

Ookla has been monitoring the quality and speed of the Internet around the world for 15 years. To date, users of its Speedtest program have collectively conducted more than 35 billion tests over the entire existence of the group. Ookla recently made publicly available a study on the speed of mobile Internet providers in Russia.

How the study of mobile internet speed in Russia was conducted

Speedtest

Ookla experts analyzed data from more than 7,335,000 tests conducted using the Speedtest mobile app for iOS and Android over a certain period of time.

  • During the analysis, only the most popular operators were taken into account, which scored 3% or more of the total number of tests performed.
  • This data array was then processed and the download and upload speed was measured.
  • The greatest attention was paid to download speed and overall average speed - these indicators reflect what ISP customers have to deal with every day on a regular basis.

True, not everyone agrees with the Ookla rating. The reason is in the very principle of the study - Speedtest measures only the speed from the user to the nearest server, which is not too loaded with traffic and content. Therefore, the real indicators of mobile Internet can be about 15-20% less.

Leaders of mobile internet rating in Russia

1. MegaFon

  • Download speed: 32.19 Mbps
  • Download speed: 11.9 Mbps

In the first and second quarters of 2023, MegaFon became the fastest Russian mobile Internet provider. The company is significantly – more than a third – ahead of its competitors in download speed. The difference in download speed is not so impressive, but here MegaFon is also the undisputed leader.

MegaFon is not at all surprised by the results of the study – this is a well-deserved reward for the efforts made. After all, the company has been ahead of its competitors in Internet speed for five years in a row, and this is deservedly recognized by users. As one of the managers says, over the past three years, the amount of traffic on MegaFon’s mobile networks has increased threefold.

Not least of all, the popularity of this provider was played by a favorable offer: now, having acquired mobile Internet from MegaFon, you can share it with friends and relatives absolutely free of charge and without any limits.

The quality of this traffic has also changed, and previously mobile Internet users sat on social networks and watched videos on YouTube, but now they play online games, communicate via messengers and use streaming services. Therefore, the company's engineers and managers have to adapt to the needs of users and modernize the networks accordingly.

Now MegaFon continues to develop intensively – it is building LTE stations and plans to bring the Internet to regions that are still outside the coverage of networks concentrated in large cities.

2. MTS

  • Download speed: 21.7 Mbps
  • Download speed: 8.82 Mbps

Although MTS lags significantly behind the leader in terms of download speed, it is one of the most popular mobile Internet providers in Russia and neighboring republics. According to the company's PR service, MTS still has the largest subscriber base in Russia - more than 78 million people use its services in 200 cities across the country.

The test results did not please MTS's PR service too much: they claim that the company is a leader in user measurements, that is, not when the speed is measured when downloading a file from a certain test server, but in everyday conditions, for example, when watching a video from a streaming service.

In 2025, MTS plans to build at least 6.5 thousand base stations, which is two and a half times more than last year’s figures.

3. Beeline

  • Download speed: 19.72 Mbps
  • Download speed: 9.59 Mbps

Although Beeline is in third place in terms of download speed, it is in second place in terms of upload speed. Here the hardworking bee has overtaken both MTS and Tele2.

According to the company's analysts, over the past five years, traffic in "striped" networks has grown almost sixfold. Beeline has covered all age categories - from young people up to 25 years old (an increase of 2,478%) to pensioners (the number of mobile Internet users of this age increased by 7,84%).

4. Tele2

  • Download speed: 18.86 Mbps
  • Download speed: 8.2 Mbps

Like many other Internet providers, the coronavirus year has been fruitful for Tele2. As the company's press service reported, mobile Internet consumption has grown by 57%.

Seeing the demand, Tele2 began to build new networks and increase the capacity of existing ones at an accelerated pace and significantly expanded its sphere of influence. Now its Internet is used in 68 regions of Russia. According to company representatives, in 2023 they increased the number of LTE in Russia by 56%.

Top 3 Russian cities with the fastest mobile internet

Although the capital of our Motherland is in first place in terms of download speed, however, in terms of upload speed, everything is not so clear. Moscow downloads quickly, with an excellent speed of 48.85 Mbit / s (MegaFon), but uploads poorly.

The maximum download speed among all four providers is only 14.94 Mbit/s (and here Beeline excelled). The best for sending documents, uploading photos and videos are residents of the northern capital, St. Petersburg – there the maximum download speed reaches 15.78 Mbit/s (again MegaFon).

In third place for both uploads and downloads is Samara, where, however, Tele2 is so poorly represented that it was not even included in the rating.