Last year, the Ookla for Good team created and published an open dataset derived from hundreds of millions of Speedtest® results. To address the divide, it’s essential to understand where access is lacking. COVID-19 amplified the impact of this divide, making it impossible for students with insufficient internet access to participate in remote learning, contributing to an education gap that could last for a generation. This gap in access is known as the ‘digital divide’ and it represents an ever-growing disparity in access to digital resources for businesses, communities, schools, and individuals. households in both rural and urban communities lack reliable broadband access.

Even in 2021, there are many around the world who lack a reliable internet connection or access at all. Instant communication has created a smaller, more connected world and increased economic opportunity - but only for those with access to a reliable internet connection. This means increasing transparency and accountability for telecommunications service providers and policymakers. Ookla for Good is focused on making the internet better, faster, and more accessible for everyone. The map leverages the partnership between Mapbox and Ookla to combine Ookla Open Datasets with the scalable processing power of Mapbox Tiling Service (MTS) and the dynamic map rendering capability of GLJS v2. Mapbox and Ookla launched the Ookla for Good Global Network Performance map this week, allowing the researchers, policymakers, journalists, and the general public unprecedented access to global broadband performance data to enable better decision making.

Ookla map