India’s Mobile & Broadband Data Speeds Rank Way Below Most Nations

The latest global internet speed index doesn’t show the situation improving and users are not getting the best.

Affordable data rates haven’t changed the scenario of slow data speeds just yet.

(Photo: Rhythum Seth/The Quint)

Indians might be getting the most affordable mobile data plans in the world, but they’re yet to get the best experience of high-speed mobile internet, something that has been repeatedly stated.

The latest Speedtest Global Index from Ookla reiterates this, with no change in sight.

The report says India’s mobile data speed ranks 128th in the world, with countries from the sub-continent like Pakistan and Sri Lanka getting higher data speeds in the list. So, while the country ponders when to start working towards bringing 5G network to the people, we’re grappling with existing networks that are hardly delivering in terms of data speed.

“India has been ranked 128th for mobile broadband and 66th for fixed broadband while mean download speeds on fixed broadband has slipped to 38.84 Mbps in January 2020 with minuscule improvement in mobile broadband to 11.58 Mbps, Ookla said in its Speedtest Global Index.

India is nowhere close to offering speeds like its global peers.(Photo: Ookla)

India caters to over 400 million internet users, which can put a serious strain on the network density, limiting the performance of telecom operators. But that can’t be the reason behind which telcos continue to hide their failure to improve the situation after all these years.

After all, global companies still use India to pilot test products that perform in low-network conditions and offer features like offline mode, because of inconsistent speeds provided by telcos.

The same goes for broadband users and even though the ranking is much better, speeds have failed to improve.

What could possibly help internet speeds improve in the country? While Reliance Jio claims to have covered the whole country with its 4G network and so has Airtel, where is the gap? How does one address the issue?

The report highlights that with Reliance Jio's rollout of its new GigaFiber service, people can expect the fixed broadband speeds to get better in the near future.

But when you consider the top ranked country in the mobile data speed list offers 31.95 Mbps consistently, and for broadband it is 74.34 Mbps as the download speed, India has a long way to go before catching up with its developed peers.