One of the five restaurants, cafes and bars that won the best reviews for having the speediest Wi-Fi in the world is – drum roll, please – a Starbucks in Silicon Valley.
That’s right, a Starbucks. Not a fancy restaurant, and not a McDonald’s.
The list is based on the first, major data mining done for consumers by Rotten Wi-Fi, a TripAdvisor-like app used by more than 44,000 people to review and measure the quality of Wi-Fi in hotels, restaurants and airports. The app was released on the App Store three months ago, and this week was made available on the web and for Android users.
Measuring Wi-Fi in every eatery, of course, isn’t possible. But Rotten Wi-Fi has crunched review scores from more than 44,000 users who reviewed the Wi-Fi in 2,400 eateries and bars in 159 countries using the app. It’s not exactly scientific, but it reminded me of those TripAdvisor lists we’ve all read (and that I’ve written while at USA TODAY) over the years before TripAdvisor grew into the giant database that it is today.
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As use of the app grows, the data will improve.
In the meantime, if you’re wondering where the other four eateries are, here’s the full list, according to Rotten Wi-Fi:
- Autogrill Restaurant, Villetelle, France – download speed 58.6 Mbps, satisfaction rank – 7/1
- Starbucks Coffee Shop, San Jose, CA – download speed 44.4 Mbps, satisfaction rank – 8/10
- Pipirini Subs Fast food Restaurant, Lithuania – download speed 43.7 Mbps, satisfaction rank – 8/10
- Time Restaurant, Lithuania – download speed 43.1 Mbps, satisfaction rank – 10/10§
- Edly Cocktail Bar, Romania – download speed 42.2 Mbps, satisfaction rank – 7/10
Additional nuggets unveiled by the analysis of initial Apple app users:
- The most downloads from the App Store were in the USA between April and July. The other countries where the app has been embraced most are the Philippines (13%) and Ecuador (8%).
- Rotten Wi-Fi users have measured the quality of Internet in 159 countries, tested 263 hotels, 50 airports and more than 2,400 bars, cafes, restaurants, as well as a range of other public and private hotspots.
- The most active countries checking and rating their WiFi experiences using the app are Philippines (13%), Ecuador (7%), Lithuania (6.5%), Venezuela (6%) and the USA (5%).
Could it be that fewer people are interested in measuring and critiquing Wi-Fi quality in the USA because it’s pretty good? Yes, the data show.
“The average download speed of all hotspots in these countries is almost opposite to these results,” Rotten Wi-Fi said in a statement, “with USA boasting 8.2 Mbps and Lithuania sitting at 7.0 Mbps, while average Internet speed in Philippines reaches 1.2 Mbps, 3.2 Mbps in Ecuador and 4.6 Mbps in Venezuela.”
Readers: Have you ever suffered from painfully slow Wi-Fi in a restaurant, hotel or airport?
