Nomad eSIM recorded the highest global median download speed in Ookla’s latest travel eSIM analysis. But if that is the only number taken from the research, the most important part of the story gets lost.

Ookla analysed Android Speedtest data from more than 50 identifiable travel eSIM brands across roughly 190 destinations during Q2 2026. The research examined not only download speeds, but also the wholesale networks, routing architectures and internet exit points sitting behind travel eSIM services.

The headline download figures were:

On that specific measure, Nomad eSIM finished first.

But only just.

The difference between Nomad eSIM and 1GLOBAL was 0.05 Mbps — far too small to represent a meaningful advantage for an ordinary traveler. The bigger finding from Ookla is that speed rankings alone can tell us surprisingly little about how a travel eSIM will actually perform.

What Ookla actually measured

The study used Speedtest data from Android devices, where SIM-level attributes allow Ookla to identify branded travel eSIM profiles. Tests identified as using VPNs were excluded, while published figures had to meet minimum sample thresholds.

That gives the research considerably more weight than isolated speed tests conducted by individual providers or reviewers.

But it also needs to be read correctly.

These figures are global medians, not guaranteed speeds for every package sold by Nomad, 1GLOBAL, Ubigi, Holafly or Airalo. Performance can change according to destination, local network, device, network congestion, wholesale agreement and even the specific eSIM profile being used.

Nomad’s own announcement makes the same qualification and explicitly notes that the result should not be interpreted as an official Ookla award or an overall ranking of every aspect of eSIM performance.

That distinction matters.

Speed is only part of the story

Ookla’s latency findings are arguably much more revealing than its download-speed table.

In Japan, local users on KDDI’s au network recorded median latency of 36 ms. Travel eSIM users connected to that same radio network experienced dramatically different results depending on where their traffic entered the public internet.

A locally routed travel eSIM recorded 54 ms.

Another profile routed through Madrid recorded 543 ms.

READ MORE: Why Two eSIMs on One Network Feel Different?

Same country. Same host mobile network. Completely different responsiveness.

That helps explain why two travelers can both see a strong signal and a 5G icon while one connection feels instant and the other feels frustratingly slow.

Download speed matters for things such as streaming, downloading large files, and hotspot use. Latency becomes much more noticeable during video calls, cloud applications, gaming, navigation and other interactive services.

A travel eSIM can therefore be fast in Mbps while still feeling slow.

Different providers show different strengths

This is also why the dataset should not be turned into a simple league table.

Nomad has the highest published median download speed, but 1GLOBAL is effectively tied with it.

Ubigi is not far behind at 75.89 Mbps and, according to the Ookla findings, recorded the highest measured 5G access rate among the highlighted providers at 62%.

READ MORE: Travel eSIMs vs Local SIM Cards: Real Prices, Real Scenarios

Holafly’s 56.87 Mbps shows another interesting trade-off. Ookla’s analysis indicates that strong bulk-data throughput can coexist with less efficient routing and higher latency. In other words, a provider does not need to rank first in every network metric to deliver a good experience for a particular type of user.

Airalo’s lower global median of 30.11 Mbps should be interpreted with the same caution. A global result does not mean every Airalo customer will receive 30 Mbps, just as Nomad’s 80.26 Mbps does not mean every Nomad eSIM customer will receive 80 Mbps.

The destination still matters enormously.

5G is not enough either

Ookla also raises an uncomfortable question for one of the travel eSIM industry’s favourite marketing claims: 5G coverage.

Seeing “5G available” on a product page says something about radio access, but relatively little about what happens to the traffic afterwards.

Wholesale routing, internet breakout location and commercial speed policies can all affect performance after the handset has already connected to the local network.

Ookla found evidence of narrow speed distributions among some travel eSIM services that were consistent with commercial speed caps rather than purely radio-network limitations.

That means comparing providers purely by whether they advertise 4G or 5G is becoming increasingly inadequate.

There may never be one “fastest eSIM”

For travelers, the better question may be: fastest for what?

Someone primarily streaming video may value sustained download throughput.

A business traveler making Teams or Zoom calls may care much more about latency.

Someone working with banking or location-sensitive services may prefer local IP breakout.

READ MORE: Travel eSIM Latency: What Really Determines Speed?

And in some destinations, a local operator eSIM may remain the cleaner option because the traffic stays closer to the user.

There are also important areas the Ookla study does not attempt to rank: customer support, activation reliability, pricing transparency, hotspot rules, refund policies, plan validity and how quickly a provider restores service when something goes wrong.

Those factors can matter just as much as raw network performance.

What should improve next

The industry now has an opportunity to move beyond vague claims such as “premium networks,” “fast 5G” and “best global coverage.”

Providers could disclose considerably more about the infrastructure behind their products: local network partners, routing regions, availability of local breakout, expected speed restrictions and typical latency.

Comparisons should evolve too.

Instead of creating one speed score, independent evaluations could combine:

• Download performance
• Latency
• Routing behaviour
• Local breakout
• 5G access
• Performance consistency by destination

The important word there is independent.

Ookla’s research is valuable precisely because it is based on observed network behaviour rather than provider marketing.

Final thoughts

If the question is “Which provider recorded the highest global median download speed in Ookla’s Q2 2026 analysis?”, the answer is Nomad.

If the question is “Which travel eSIM performed best overall?”, Ookla’s research does not provide one winner.

Nomad’s 80.26 Mbps and 1GLOBAL’s 80.21 Mbps are effectively indistinguishable from a traveler’s perspective. Ubigi brings another strength through high measured 5G access. And the latency evidence shows that routing architecture can sometimes have a far greater impact on real-world experience than a few extra megabits per second.

That is the more important development.

Travel eSIMs are becoming mature enough that their hidden infrastructure can finally be measured rather than simply marketed. Telecom publications covering the Ookla study reached much the same conclusion: wholesale routing decisions can create major performance differences even when users are attached to the same host network.

For Alertify, that also points toward a better approach to future benchmarking. Speed deserves a place in performance and trust assessments — but only alongside latency, routing, consistency and transparency.

The winner should not be whoever produces the biggest Mbps number. It should be the provider that delivers the strongest real-world connection for the traveler standing in a particular destination.