Baghdad's mobile internet overtook Erbil's

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

Speedtest® by Ookla® Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps, mobile quarterly tile files (Apache Parquet, s3://ookla-open-data; documentation github.com/teamookla/ookla-open-data). Platform-reported, crowdsourced Speedtest app results with GPS-quality location only; not a measure of network coverage. Read from the progrss vault (table city_ookla), which loads Ookla's own quarterly files. Checked: the four 2019 and the four latest quarterly files (2025 Q4, 2026 Q1–Q3) are listed in Ookla's public bucket s3://ookla-open-data, and the vault's file keys match them; two city-quarters were recomputed straight from Ookla's parquet files and match the vault exactly (Nouakchott mobile 2026 Q3: 458 tiles, 3,466 tests, 122.78 Mbps; Caracas fixed 2019 Q1: 940 tiles, 42,348 tests, 4.25 Mbps). Ookla defines avg_d_kbps as the average download speed of all tests in the tile; progrss weights tiles by their tests, so each figure is the mean of all tests within 25 km. Method (progrss calculation, same for all four plates in this set): a city is every zoom-16 tile (about 610 m) whose centre lies within 25 km of the city point; each period value is the tests-weighted mean of avg_d_kbps over all tiles and all four quarters of the period ('2019' = Q1–Q4 2019; 'latest four quarters' = Q4 2025–Q3 2026). These are means of tests, not the medians Ookla publishes in its Speedtest Global Index, so they will not match that index. Mobile, 2019 → latest (tests): Baghdad 3.21 (5,040) → 74.37 (44,683), quarterly 2.7, 2.5, 2.6, 7.0 → 71.5, 70.1, 76.1, 77.6; Erbil 14.36 (9,470) → 46.04 (17,940), quarterly 10.9, 10.3, 16.6, 18.1 → 42.4, 43.1, 46.8, 51.2. Baghdad first passed Erbil for one quarter in Q2 2022 (74.4 vs 41.4), fell back, and has led every quarter since Q4 2024 (46.7 vs 46.2). Others: Mosul 2.44 → 69.62; Al Hillah 1.90 → 68.47; Kirkuk 2.59 → 68.10; Najaf 1.93 → 58.80; Basra 2.58 → 57.44; Sulaymaniyah 18.19 → 51.24; Amman 16.34 → 96.52; Cairo 16.06 → 51.33 (Riyadh, 285.7, left off the chart for scale). 2019 test counts in Iraqi cities are small (Mosul 1,216, Najaf 997), and Q4 2019 fell during protests and internet cuts. Derived by progrss: multiples = latest ÷ 2019 (Baghdad 23.1×; Erbil 14.36 ÷ 3.21 = 4.5× Baghdad in 2019). 'Six of the ten': among 899 cities in the vault with at least 400 tests in 2019 and in the latest four quarters and tests in all four latest quarters; Iraqi cities rank 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10 (Al Hillah 36.1×, Najaf 30.5×, Mosul 28.5×, Kirkuk 26.3×, Baghdad 23.1×, Basra 22.3×); median of 55 MENA cities outside Iraq 4.63×; all 899, 4.71×. Iranian cities drop out: Ookla's 2026 files hold no Iranian tests. Context, not checked by progrss: Zain Iraq says 4G was approved for federal Iraq in early 2021 (company-reported); Kurdistan's operators ran 4G earlier. 'The edge has moved south' is an interpretation. Attribution: Speedtest® by Ookla® Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps, accessed from https://registry.opendata.aws/speedtest-global-performance. Based on progrss analysis of Speedtest® by Ookla® Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps for Q1 2019–Q3 2026. Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, non-commercial only: allowed on plates, never in a paid pack, licence or data product.