Viavi has launched a new tool which maps the progress of global Gigabit internet, and it’s brought up some interesting statistics.

You can scroll down to see the infographic which we’ve put together, but here are some of the highlights:

The UK is doing woefully bad in comparison to the leaders, which is perhaps unsurprising considering the state of affairs, the constant bickering between each of the competitors and the relative incompetency of the UK government in taking the country to the digital economy. It should be expected, but you can’t help but sigh.

Although penetration only accounts for 3% of the global population to date, Viavi has also noted there are a number of LTE and 5G launches expected in the near future, the scale of cellular gigabit connectivity is expected to change significantly. In Viavi’s State of 5G Trials, the data claims 25 mobile operators are currently lab-testing 5G, with 12 of those reporting that they have progressed to field trials.

“2016 was a turning point for gigabit connectivity, as many cities around the world reached the point whereby gigabit internet was available to most of its residents,” said Sameh Yamany, Viavi CTO. “Yet the gigabit revolution shows no signs of cooling down in 2017. As bandwidth increases, so does consumer appetite for it. Likewise new business models have been quick to take advantage of new bandwidth, as we’ve seen with streaming video and audio in the recent past – and which we believe will continue in the near future with VR, AR and the Internet of Things.”

If you have any useful or interesting statistics which can be turned into an infographic, feel free to drop an email through to Telecoms.com News Editor Jamie Davies on [email protected].