With the Narendra Modi Government coming to power in 2014, Indians had high hopes that the Digital Infrastructure in India will improve, and with it, internet speeds will see an uptick. However, that is not to be – According to latest State of the Internet report by Akamai, India still dons the hat of having the slowest internet connectivity in Asia-Pacific.
Even countries like Vietnam and Philippines rank above India when it comes to Internet speed.
State of the Internet in India
According to the 4Q 2015 report, India had an average internet speed of 2.8 Mbps, a growth of 11 percent quarter on quarter and 36 percent yearly growth. At the global level, India rank’s at near bottom ranking 114th in Internet speeds.
South Korea remains the country with highest average internet speed of 26.7 Mbps. India’s neighbor China ranks 89th with average speed of 4.1Mbps.
The peak internet speed registered in India in Q4 2015 is 21.2 Mbps, again the lowest in Asia. The peak speeds have seen a rise of 46 percent compared to last year. In comparison, South Korea has a peak speed of 135.7 Mbps.
While it is good to see that India’s average as well as peak speeds have grown at decent pace, other countries have also registered similar growth, thereby ensuring that India remains at the bottom of the table.
When it comes to percentage of users having 4 Mbps or higher broadband connection, India ranks just above Philippines. 17 percent of connections in India are 4Mbps and above. Among other Asia-Pac countries, China has 41 percent while neighbouring Sri Lanka has 52 percent connections that are over 4 Mbps.
India does well when it comes to connections over 10 Mbps with 2.8 percent of India’s internet broadband have that speed. Also, India ranks above countries like Philippines, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
India ranks decently at 57th across the world when it comes to internet speeds of over 15 Mbps.
As far as number of unique IP addresses go, given the sheer number of Internet connections, India ranks among the top 10 countries with highest unique IPV4 addresses (17.6 Mln). America has the highest unique IPV4 addresses which stand at just over 143 million.
India now has a government that is pro technology. They have launched numerous digital initiatives under “Digital India” campaign. For it to be successful, it is important that internet infrastructure improves drastically. Government understands that, and we can be hopeful that India moves from the bottom of table, which it has steadfastly held for a very long time!