According to the insights released by Ookla, India’s rank dipped from 117 to 118 in median mobile download speeds, even as the speed increased from 13.52 Mbps in August to 13.87 Mbps in September.
India’s ranking also dipped from 78 to 79 in fixed broadband speeds, even as broadband speeds increased from 48.29 Mbps in August to 48.59 Mbps in September.
China tops the Speedtest Global Index with Shanghai as the fastest city with a median download speed of 158.63 Mbps for mobile networks, while Beijing topped with 238.86 Mbps for fixed broadband.
Globally, median mobile download speeds ranged at 33.17 Mbps while median upload speeds ranged at 9.03 Mbps. For fixed broadband, the global median download speed ranged at 71.41 Mbps and upload speed at 30.65 Mbps.
A previous Ookla report, however, leaves room for optimism. Speed tests conducted by the research firm found mobile download speeds will increase significantly with the rollout of 5G networks.
Ookla reported a median download speed of 600 Mbps on Reliance Jio’s 5G network in Delhi, while Airtel had a median speed of 200 Mbps. That said, the report found Reliance Jio’s 5G network relying on C-band spectrum reported faster speeds between 606.53 Mbps to 875.26 Mbps, while on the lower 700 MHz coverage band, speeds ranged lower than 100 Mbps.
An earlier Ookla report found that 89% of Indian smartphone users were ready to upgrade to 5G. Reliance Jio had the largest addressable base of 5G devices, at 67.4%, followed by Airtel with 61.6% and Vodafone Idea with 56%.
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