India Mobile Internet Speeds Dropped Further in January: Ookla

Mobile Internet speeds in India have continued to drop on Ookla's Speedtest Global Index in January. The data shared by the analytics firm revealed that the country dropped to the 131st position globally from 129th in December for its slower mobile Internet speeds. However, fixed mobile broadband speeds in India saw a marginal growth that helped retain the 65th position on the global index. Unlike India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and South Korea saw a growth in their mobile Internet speeds that brought them to the first and second position.

Mobile Internet speeds in January

The data available on Ookla's Speedtest Global Index for the month of January 2021 shows that average mobile download speed in India dipped over 3.8 percent to 12.41Mbps from 12.91Mbps in December. Alongside download speed, average upload speed in the country also dropped over 4.2 percent to 4.76Mbps. The country had 4.97Mbps of average upload speed in December, as per the previous data released by Ookla. However, latency rate in the country remains constant to 51 milliseconds in the last two months.

India's average mobile download speed dropped from 12.91Mbps to 12.41Mbps in January
Photo Credit: Ookla

Globally, the Speedtest Global Index by Ookla shows that the UAE and South Korea surpassed Qatar to reach the first and second positions with an average mobile download speed of 183.03Mbps and 171.26Mbps in January, respectively. Both the UAE and South Korea also made improvements over their December results as Ookla showed them with 177.52Mbps and 169.03Mbps speeds, respectively, at that time.

Qatar, however, moved to third with an average mobile download speed of 170.65Mbps in January. It had 178.01Mbps of download speed in December.

China ranked fourth on the global index, with an average mobile download speed of 149.68Mbps in January, according to Ookla. The country had 155.89Mbps speed in December. It was followed by Saudi Arabia that came fifth, with an average mobile download speed of 115.84Mbps, as per the data provided in the index.

Global average download speed on mobile devices declined almost one percent to 46.74Mbps in January from 47.20Mbps in December, the Speedtest Global Index revealed. Average mobile upload speed in the global markets also dropped over 1.42 percent to 12.49Mbps in December from 12.67Mbps in the month earlier. Average latency rate, on the other side, increased by one millisecond to 37 milliseconds in December.

Fixed broadband speeds in January

In terms of fixed broadband, India remained on the 65th position on the Global Speedtest Index in January. It resulted in an average download speed of 54.73Mbps — over 1.5 percent up from the 53.90Mbps speed in December. The country also registered a growth of over 1.1 percent in average broadband upload speed to 51.33Mbps in January, up from 50.75Mbps in December.

Average download and upload speeds on fixed broadband in India increased in January
Photo Credit: Ookla

Singapore led the Speedtest index globally with 247.54Mbps in average download speed over broadband connections in January. It overtook Thailand that dropped to the third position, with 220.59Mbps broadband download speed. Hong Kong, on the other hand, came second, with an average broadband download speed of 229.45Mbps.

On the global broadband performance front, Ookla's Speedtest Index shows that average download speed on broadband connections globally grew marginally to 96.98Mbps in January from 96.43Mbps in December. Average broadband upload speed, on the other hand, dropped globally to 51.28Mbps from 52.31Mbps — showing a dip of nearly two percent. However, average latency on broadband connections in the worldwide markets dropped to 20 milliseconds from 21 milliseconds.

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