India’s mobile and broadband download speeds rise in June, but still much behind the global average: Ookla | 91mobiles.com

Ookla (of Speedtest.net fame) has released its monthly report detailing the average internet speeds across the world. It highlights both fixed broadband and mobile networks. In the infographic below, we can see that the overall average speed increased across the board on both networks. On mobile, the global average throughout is 55.4Mbps, while it stands at 106.6Mbps for fixed broadband. We can see that both networks’ average speeds have been increasing, presumably due to the widespread availability of high-speed options such as 5G and FTTP. Mobile also seems to have caught up with broadband in terms of latency. You can read the report in its entirety here. 

Looking at some India-specific stats, the average mobile broadband download speed is 17.8Mbps. It ranks 122nd in the world, which might seem abysmal at first, but actually puts us six places higher than last month. The low speed is probably due to the non-availability of 4G LTE in many regions. Furthermore, throttled speeds in urban areas with tremendously stressed networks could play a part, too. Then again, we don’t know Ookla’s exact test methodology, so the real-world situation could be quite different. India will continue to remain at the bottom of the pile until 5G services launch and become widely available. Unfortunately, that isn’t happening until 2023, at least. 

Things are a lot better on the fixed broadband front, with India occupying the 70th position worldwide. To put things in perspective, Pakistan is all the way at 164th place with an average download speed of 12.77Mbps. Bangladesh is slightly better off at 98th place (38Mbps average) and Nepal at 115th (27.3Mbps). While we’re better off than our immediate neighbours, other South-East Asian countries are faring relatively well, especially in the wireless broadband sector.