Broadband: UK has world's fastest 3G and 4G mobile speeds with 20.4Mbps

The UK now has the fastest average mobile broadband speeds in the world, beating South Korea with a top average 3G and 4G connection speed of 20.4Mbps.

According to a new report by content delivery network firm Akamai, in the first quarter of 2015 the UK's average mobile broadband connection speed was twice as high as its nearest competitor Denmark, which has an average speed of 10Mbps.

Puerto Rico was third with a speed of 9.6Mbps, Sweden came in fourth with 8.9Mbps while South Korea, known for having the most advanced mobile networks in the world, surprisingly came in fifth with mobile connection speeds of 8.8Mbps.

Out of the 62 countries listed in the report, Vietnam had the lowest mobile broadband speed, 1.3Mbps.

However, when it came to average peak connection speeds when the mobile network was being tested by the most amount of people surfing the web on mobile devices at one time, the UK's lead flagged.

4G connection speeds up in 40 countries

Australia topped this chart with a peak connection speed of 149.3Mbps, followed by Japan (126Mbps), Singapore (116.4Mbps), Thailand (105.4 Mbps), UK (90.9Mbps) and Israel (90.1Mbps).

In the UK, the 4G race is on as O2, Vodafone and Three try to attract as many 4G customers as possible. EE, which had a head start on the rest of the operators, announced in May that it now has 10 million 4G customers, making it the biggest 4G network in the whole of Europe.

"We saw generally positive results across all of the key metrics during the first quarter of 2015," said David Belson, editor of the report for Akamai.

"The increase in global broadband speeds demonstrates an ongoing commitment to higher standards.

"While connectivity will continue to differ across many regions, we see the highest broadband speeds in countries/regions with high population densities and strong government backing or support, as well as those that foster competition among internet providers."