Ever since the fifth-generation (5G) internet service rolled out in India, India’s global ranking of median downloads has been increasing. The credit for this can be given to the arrival of Airtel and Jio 5G across various Indian states. Now, as per the recent tests by Ookla, India ranks 47th globally ranking in median download speeds, as of August 2023.
This is a big leap considering the fact that last year, in September 2022, India held the 119th spot. Let’s take a look at what this test reveals.
5G network services were launched commercially in India on 1 October 2022. Within its first year of release itself, India had gained about 50 million 5G users.
The data collected by Ookla points out that median download speeds are increasing, in pan-India. Earlier, this was just 13.87Mbps in September 2022. After 5G was launched for the first time on 1 October 2022, the download speeds saw a 259% increase and it reached up to 50.21Mbps in August 2023.
After 5G was rolled out in India, significant issues related to the 4G services were addressed. This also meant an offload of the 4G traffic to 5G and thus in turn reducing the traffic. Airtel MD & CEO Gopal Vittal even mentioned that they saw a 30% offload as they rolled out 5G service in India.
Also read: Everything you need to know about 5G in India
Sylwia Kechiche, Principal Industry Analyst, Enterprise at Ookla, said, “This puts India ahead of its neighbors, Indonesia, 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).”
In India itself, Kashmir ranks first in mobile median download speeds with download speeds reaching 150.96Mbps. It has surpassed both Bihar with 73.00Mbps speed and Kolkata with 66.47Mbps speed.
