It’s time for another thorough analysis of global LTE performance brought to you by OpenSignal’s network research experts and a large community of over 550,000 smartphone and “smart device” users in 75 countries contributing more than 19 billion measurements between January 1 and March 31, 2017.

While similarly depressing as previous “State of LTE” reports for US download speed junkies,  the latest 4G availability chart does rank “the land of the free” fourth worldwide in coverage, at a rather impressive and fast-growing 86.5 percent (vs. 81.3 six months ago).

The only nations tracked with more ubiquitous LTE technology are of course traditional top performers South Korea and Japan, as well as rising star Norway. But the thing American patriots need to keep in mind is both Korea and Norway also shine when it comes to average connection velocity.

Singapore still has the quickest LTE networks, at over 45 Mbps, followed by Korea’s 43.46 average score, Hungary with 42+, Norway at a little over 41, and Netherlands falling under the 40 Mbps mark.

The United States, alongside Japan, but also countries like Jordan, Georgia, Panama and Tunisia, sit in the lower half of the hierarchy, tallying download rates of between 14 and 25 Mbps.

Oh, well, at least Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint subscribers can be “proud” of seeing their average speeds rise from 13.95 the last time OpenSignal added up its measurements to a way higher 14.99 Mbps now.

We’re obviously being ironic, though you also have to consider the sheer size of the USA compared to, say, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania or Latvia. There are huge little-populated areas that don’t justify massive infrastructure investments, and overall, it’s more important to be able to regularly get an LTE connection, which is what the availability chart is for.

In other news, the number of countries with over 80 percent availability is growing (hello, India), and the same goes for 60 percent+ results. OpenSignal is also happy to report above-average speeds are recorded in more and more regions, including Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain.