Even though India has one of the lowest internet speeds in Asia Pacific, the people of the country remain optimistic about the improvements. In December 2016, Akamai reported that India’s average internet speed crossed the 4Mbps barrier but remained the slowest in APAC.

Fast forward three months, Akamai reports that India’s average internet speed has risen to 5.6mbps in Q4 2016, which is a hefty 37% increase over last quarter. However, this time India has been ranked second last, while the Philippines has been ranked last at 4.5Mbps. This is also the first time in last 5 years that India is not the slowest

Last year same quarter, the average speed of internet in India was 2.8Mbps, which means there is a 100% jump in only one year, quite an impressive feat.

This has only been possible because of adoption of better internet infrastructure in India and importance of a digital India.

In terms of growth rate, India has been ranked second to Vietnam, which has seen the fastest improvement rate in internet speeds at 115%. India’s global rank is 97, a little behind China and Indonesia out of 149 qualifying countries.

The report read, “In more disappointing news, India’s telecommunications regulator TRAI mandated that all wired broadband providers enable minimum download speeds of just 512 Kbps, despite having previously recommended minimum speeds of 2 Mbps. However, there were positive developments in the country as well, as Bharti Airtel launched its V-Fiber broadband service in the fourth quarter, offering 100 Mbps fixed broadband access. Initially rolling out in Chennai, Bharti’s service was slated to become available to 87 cities in India within a few weeks.”

How did other APAC countries fare?

South Korea, ranked first globally, had an average internet speed of 26.1Mbps, a drop of 0.7% from the previous quarter. Hong Kong was ranked fourth globally and second in APAC with an average speed of 21.9Mbps.

Singapore, Japan, and Taiwan were ranked under 20 globally with average speeds of 20.2Mbps, 19.6Mbps and 15.6Mbps. Thailand, Sri Lanka, China, Malaysia and even Vietnam has better average internet speeds as compared to India, which is the fastest growing economy in Asia.

Europeans countries have the best internet connections

In the top 10 best average internet speeds list, even though South Korea led the pack, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland and Netherlands figured in the top 10 with speeds of 23.6Mbps, 22.8Mbps, 21.2Mbps, 20.7Mbps, 20.6Mbps and 17.6Mbps respectively.

Even though India struggles with providing faster internet connections to people, Reliance Jio has definitely helped Indians get access to 4G and LTE speeds. Telcos have also been pushing for conversion of 2G and 3G connections to 4G, and along with the introduction of optic fibre cables for the internet have contributed to a higher average last quarter.

However, 5.6Mbps still seems very slow when global average is at 7Mbps. Furthermore, when the Government of India wants to make the country at par with developed nations, then it must take stricter actions to help improve the adoption of the internet in India first.

Source: Akamai (pdf)