India improves internet speed but still fares poorly in global rankings

In fixed broadband connections, India's rank rose four notches to 65th globally, while in mobile internet speed it fell two spots to 111th

Fixed broadband internet services and mobile data services in India saw some improvement in 2018 when compared with the previous year, but there may still be miles to go for the country before it ranks among the best in the world.

While India’s mobile internet speed improved marginally during the year, registering a year-on-year growth rate of 15.2 per cent, fixed broadband speed grew 50.4 per cent, according to a report by internet speed testing and analysis firm Ookla.

In November 2017, India had stood 69th and 109th in Ookla’s SpeedTest global index for fixed line broadband and mobile data, respectively. During the same period this year, the country moved up to 65th spot in fixed broadband connections with average download and upload speeds of 26.46 Mbps and 21.91, respectively. The country’s ranking in mobile data category, however, fell to 111th. Though its ranking came down, India’s average mobile data download and upload speeds increased from 8.8 Mbps and 3.55 Mbps, respectively, in Nov 2017, to 9.93 Mbps and 3.82 Mbps in November 2018.

The report also highlighted that the world’s most populous countries — China, India, US, Indonesia and Brazil — failed to make it to the list of the fastest or most improved countries on mobile and fixed broadband. In terms of mobile data, though India ranked last, along with Indonesia, in the list of world’s most populous countries, India saw its speed improving much more quickly than Indonesia.

In terms of fixed broadband, on the other hand, India showed the biggest improvement in mean download speed (23 Mbps) among the world’s five largest countries. The report also stated that the country’s capital, New Delhi, saw a major increase (16,908 per cent) in gigabit results in 2018.

The countries with the fastest mean download speeds over mobile in 2018 were Norway (63.19 Mbps), Iceland (58.68 Mbps), Qatar (55.17 Mbps), Singapore (54.71 Mbps) and the Netherlands (53.42 Mbps).

Singapore showed the world’s fastest mean download speed over fixed broadband in 2018 at 175.13 Mbps. The next fastest were Iceland (153.03 Mbps), Hong Kong (138.31 Mbps), South Korea (114.67 Mbps) and Romania (109.90 Mbps).