The Indian government is working towards a four-fold increase in mandated internet speeds for mobile and broadband internet. As per Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan, companies are not offering internet speeds advertised in their 3G, 4G data packs.
The Indian Government has reportedly started the process of increasing the mandated internet speeds for mobile and broadband to 2Mbps. It is currently mandatory for Internet Service Providers to provide minimum speeds of at least 512Kbps, but given India’s growing digital agenda and the forthcoming adoption of 5G networks, the govt is looking to up the minimum mandatory internet speeds provided in the country.
As per a report in the Economic Times, Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said that 3G, 4G service providers do not live up to their advertised promise of high-speed data. “We are very slow . While we have done a lot on (providing internet) access, we have not been able to actually deliver the quality of service that is required,“ Sundararajan told the publication.
The 2Mbps minimum mandatory internet speeds are also being pushed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). In its Consultation Paper on Data Speed Under Wireless Broadband Plans, the regulator had also highlighted the difference between advertised internet speeds and those that are actually experienced by users. In the paper, TRAI wrote, “For instance, crowd-sourced data from Trai's mySpeed portal shows that quite a few 3G subscribers throughout the country receive a download speed of less than 1 Mbps. Moreover, these 'below 1 Mbps' speed can go as low as 10 Kbp for some 3G subscribers”
Sundararajan went on to comment about the minimum data speed increase saying, “2 mbps is the basic minimum. We should definitely mandate this. If at all, it should be higher than that. It cannot be lower than that.“
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