Internet speeds in India have increased in the second quarter this year despite consistent strain on networks due to remote work and bandwidth-hungry applications like video calling, streaming and gaming.
(Subscribe to our Today's Cache newsletter for a quick snapshot of top 5 tech stories. Click here to subscribe for free.)
"Indian telcos (like others worldwide) have had to contend with some significant changes to customer demand, with people working remotely and having to spend more of their leisure time at home during the pandemic. Despite the resultant strain on their networks, we haven’t seen a detrimental impact on network performance," Doug Suttles, CEO and co-founder of broadband intelligence firm Ookla, told The Hindu.
For fixed broadband, median download speeds in the country have increased to 39.31 Mbps in Q2 this year from 25.79 Mbps during the same period last year, according to Ookla. Upload speeds have shown a similar scale increase, and latencies continued to improve.
Shift to fibre optic and newer access technologies are said to be helping Internet Service Providers (ISP) drive network performance, and the trend is expected to continue.
With a median download speed of 61.88 Mbps, Jio is the fastest ISP in the market in Q2 followed by Excitel, ACT, Airtel, Hathaway and BSNL. If we look at latency however, ACT and Excitel are the top two ISPs in India.
Also Read | Researchers record world’s fastest internet data speed
It is a similar success story for mobile internet despite the networks being tested by continued connection growth and the ever-increasing demand for data. Median mobile download speeds increased to 12.5 Mbps in Q2 this year from 8.5 Mbps during the same period in the previous year, according to the network intelligence firm.
Vi India provided the fastest median download speed of 11.78 Mbps in Q2 followed by Airtel and Jio. When we look at coverage data for the same period, Jio is the leader of the pack for 4G Service, 4G Availability and Coverage Score, Ookla said.
Also Read | “India ranks among lowest in terms of Internet quality”
"This underlines the impact it has had in helping bridge the digital divide to bring affordable internet to more remote parts of the country," Suttles said .
