UK mobile networks beat America for AI
Key Points
- UK scored 92.6% for text, 87.3% for voice and 79.9% for video AI readiness.
- The US trailed the UK on all three, while France led both countries.
- Global average text AI readiness across 140 countries was 74%.
- Slow connection start times caused most text AI failures.
- Low-income countries lag high-income countries by about 35 percentage points.
UK mobile networks handled AI text prompts in 92.6% of Opensignal’s tests, ahead of the US on 89.2%.
Network benchmarking firm Opensignal measured how well mobile connections in 140 countries cope with text, voice and video conversations with AI services.
The UK scored 87.3% for voice conversations with AI and 79.9% for video, compared with 84.3% and 76.7% in the US.
France outperformed both countries, scoring 94.7% for text, 90.4% for voice and 83.1% for video.
Estonia led Europe and Central Asia across all three categories, while South Korea topped the East Asia and Pacific region.
Each score reflects the percentage of tests that met Opensignal’s minimum network requirements for that type of AI interaction.
Opensignal set the bar for text prompts at just 0.01Mbps download and 0.2Mbps upload speeds, a fraction of what modern 4G and 5G connections deliver.
Voice conversations need the same 0.2Mbps in both directions, but also require a responsive and stable connection with a delay below 50 milliseconds.
Video conversations add a 2Mbps upload requirement, which exceeds Microsoft’s recommendation for a one-to-one HD video call on Teams.
The average text AI readiness across all 140 countries stood at 74%.
Only 83 countries delivered text AI readiness at least 75% of the time, while 45% of countries reached that level for voice and 39% for video.
Opensignal said the most common cause of failure for text AI was a slow time to first byte, which measures how long a connection takes to start delivering data.
A slow start makes conversations with AI chatbots feel sluggish, the firm added.
Upload speeds rarely held back AI use in wealthy countries, with an average of 6% of tests per country failing the video upload requirement.
Low and lower-middle income countries scored about 35 percentage points lower than high-income countries for text AI readiness.
In those countries, 24% of tests failed the response time conditions for voice and video, compared with 1% in high-income countries.
Opensignal said consumers increasingly talk to AI using their voice and camera, with 63% of Gemini users now using voice at some point.
One in five Gemini Live conversations also involve a live camera feed or screen sharing, according to the firm.
Opensignal called on regulators to focus on day-to-day network consistency rather than peak speeds or access to the latest network technology.
