India, Dec. 1 -- In today's digital age, speed is the new scale-and having a consistently fast and dependable internet connection means a great deal of difference as the demand for connectivity grows overtime. Countries around the world are scrambling to keep up with the need for better internet service providers, and India-despite its plans to become a digital first nation-is falling behind.
Pakistan and Nepal have faster Internet speed
The Ookla Speedtest Global Index ranked India as 131st-out of 138 countries-when it comes to mobile internet speeds, and 70th-out of 175 nations-for fixed broadband speed in the month of September 2020. According to the index, India's average mobile download speed is 12.07Mbps-lower than the 35.26Mbps global average. The country's average mobile upload speed is at 4.3Mbps with a latency of 52ms-also significantly lower compared to the global average of 11.22Mbps mobile upload speed and 42ms latency.
India's neighbors are ranked higher on the list: China is at the second spot with 113.35Mbps average mobile download speed, while Sri Lanka is at 102nd place with 19.95Mbps. Pakistan is ranked 116th with 17.13Mbps, followed by Nepal at 117th position with 17.12Mbps.
Keeping up with demand for connectivity
For a country like India, which has been on a digital-first trajectory over the past couple of years, having faster-not to mention reliable-internet speed is vital to the nation's digital transformation across key sectors including manufacturing, education, healthcare, government services and labor market. The energy sector is also moving towards digitalization, with plans to deploy an estimated 2.35 million smart electricity meters in the near future. For the average consumer, the need is for internet speed to keep up with their often-used platforms, such as news media, social media and even real money teen patti casual game platforms.
The Broadband Forum India (BIF) recently responded to consultation papers by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the need to update the definition of minimum internet speed from the "dismally low" 512Kbps to 2Mbps for a broadband connection.
"It is our view that since the current definition of broadband captures neither the development of the technology nor the Indian consumers' appetite for high speed broadband services, it must be reviewed and redefined," the BIF said in its submission to Trai.
Currently, there have been efforts from local operators to improve and expand 4G coverage across the country-all in a bid to provide customers in India a fast and modern mobile internet experience.
Data from Ookla's global performance metrics Speedtest Intelligence showed that India has "the second faster mean download speed over mobile among the largest South Asian countries during Q3 2020," trailing behind Pakistan which has 39.7% faster mobile download speed. Bangladesh rounded up the top 3 for download speed.
4G, however, is a different story. According to Ookla, "India had the highest 4G Availability among the largest South Asian countries during Q3 2020 with 93.7% of tested locations showing 4G available according to data from Speedtest coverage scans on Android." Bangladesh was ranked second with a 78.6% 4G availability, while Pakistan recorded the lowest 4G availability for the Q3 2020 period at 72.9%.
Source : Press Release
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