A mobile internet speed of 1Mbps is sufficient for many popular applications, such as WhatsApp and Skype. That is the conclusion of the Dutch Consumers’ Association after doing research.

Telecom providers are offering several internet speeds. The test shows that the speed of mobile internet doesn’t matter for popular applications such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Wordfeud and Draw Something. Also for Spotify (music stream) and Skype, consumers hardly notice the difference between different speeds. Only when loading images larger than 7.5 MB and watching videos (e.g. YouTube), the difference in speed is noticeable. The test compared speeds of 1Mbps, 3.6 Mbps and 14.4 Mbps.

The Consumers’ Association advises consumers not to focus on the indicated internet speed, but on the network coverage. That has much more influence on the user experience.