5G drives India's speed ranking up 72 places

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, October 2

The mobile download speeds in India have seen significant improvement since 5G telecom services were rolled out on October 1 last year. The country jumped 72 places to clinch 47th spot on the Speedtest Global Index, according to Ookla, a global internet speed testing agency.

“India’s speed performance has seen a 3.59 times increase, with median download speeds improving to 50.21 Mbps in August 2023, from 13.87 Mbps in September 2022, a 259 per cent increase,” it said, adding in August 2023, Jammu and Kashmir emerged as the leader in mobile median download speeds at 150.96 Mbps.

Dubbing the country’s 5G advancement as remarkable, Ookla said this put India not only ahead of its neighbours like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, but also some G20 countries such as Mexico (90th), Turkey (68th), the UK (62nd), Japan (58th), Brazil (50th place), and South Africa (48th place). The 5G deployments have led to an improved overall user experience across all telecom circles. The launch of 5G technology by operators like Jio and Airtel has led to a substantial increase in 5G subscribers, and operators still have ambitious rollout plans, with the deployment of a significant number of 5G base stations across the country, the report said.