India Ranks 105th In The World With An Average Internet Speed Of 4.1Mbps

No sooner had our nation¡¯s collective internet speed recovered from Cyclone Vardah¡¯s devastation than Akamai¡¯s State Of The Internet report went public. And India¡¯s name found some promising mention in it.

Surprised? You¡¯re not alone! No matter how much we curse and crib about our sluggish internet speeds, there can be no more doubt that our country¡¯s internet infrastructure is ramping up and the average connectivity speed is on an unmistakable rise. Don¡¯t take our word for it, that¡¯s what Akamai -- one of the top content delivery networks in the world -- is saying in its Q3 2016 assessment of global Internet trends.

With an average connectivity speed of 4.1 Mbps, India officially ranks 105th in terms of internet speed. South Korea ranks 1st with an enviable average connectivity speed of 26.3 Mbps!

While we are nowhere near the top of the chart, it¡¯s still sad to know that we lag behind countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Philippines, all of whose citizens enjoy considerably faster average internet connections than all of us here in India. Not one of our most glorious achievements, I agree, but ours is a nation of over 130 crore people and getting them all online is no easy task. But there¡¯s good news on that front, if you dig deeper into Akamai¡¯s State Of The Internet report.

India features among the Top 10 countries with unique IPv4 and IPv6 address counts (in other words connected devices) for the very first time, which is a great sign of our burgeoning need of being connected.

Also if you put this current 2016 report in context by comparing it with the 2015 report from a year ago, India¡¯s internet speed has risen by 62% in a year and as much as 14% in just three months. That¡¯s phenomenal!

Also, Reliance Jio, MTS India and Idea Cellular found special mention in the Akamai report as a promoter of IPv6 Internet connections.