Internet speed in India far below claim, among lowest internationally: Study

If you think that the promised Internet speed, maybe as high as 50 Mbps, by your internet service provider, is not fast enough to download large files, then you are right.

In a study by the 'Consumer Voice', a voluntary action group working for consumer rights, the Internet speed provided to users in the country is far below the claimed speed by the service providers. Besides, it is amongst the lowest internationally, reports ET via PTI.

"A striking finding was that the internet speed the service providers are giving to the users are far below what they claim and amongst the lowest internationally," the group said in a release.

The unscrupulous practice by the service providers will not help the country become ‘Digital India’.

It is not just the provision of service rather a quality of internet service that determines the sustainability of the new vision, according to the study.

"It is for this (reason) that the stakeholders are urged to take corrective and timely measures that ensure promising future for internet service by serving the mutual interest of all," it said.

The study took sample data from eight states across four telecom operators to verify the gap between supply and claim in Internet speed.

It also found a wide gap between 3G and 4G speed claims of internet service providers and their actual performance.

"The poor level of internet speed requires the government and the telecom regulator to devise a mechanism to improve internet speed in one way or another," the study said.

Late last year, Ookla published a similar report and placed India at 109th position in speed with 7.65 Mbps. According to data from Ookla's November Speedtest Global Index, Norway ranked first in the world for mobile internet with an average download speed of 62.66 Mbps. Singapore got the top spot for fixed broadband with a 153.85 Mbps average download.

In July 2017, London-based OpenSignal released a similar report on Reliance Jio. The report by OpenSignal claimed that even as Reliance Jio's average 4G LTE speed was 3.9Mbps, the average peak speed - when the network was performing at optimal conditions - stood at 50Mbps. The test showed the results between the period December 2016 and February 2017.