Notable decline in mean fixed broadband speed in India in March: Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index

Ookla, the company behind Speedtest, recently released updates to its Speedtest Global Index.

As of March, the Index ranks India 130^th for mobile, 2 spots down compared to February 2020. India also dropped two spots on fixed broadband and is now ranked 71st globally in that category.

According to Ookla’s March Speedtest Global Index, UAE is in first position for mobile broadband speed with a mean download of 83.52 Mbps. Singapore still holds the top spot for fixed broadband speed with a mean download of 197.26 Mbps.

In India, there was a slight dip in mean mobile download speed, from 11.83 Mbps in February to 10.15 Mbps in March 2020.

Similarly, mean download speeds on fixed broadband have decreased from 39.65 Mbps in February to 35.98 Mbps in March. The mean fixed broadband speed in India has been declining since the beginning of 2020 – from 41.48 Mbps in January to 35.98 Mbps in March, a drop by 5.5 Mbps.

“When networks are under usage strain, like they are in this unprecedented time of lockdown in India due to COVID-19, it is natural that they experience some level of slowdown,” said Doug Suttles, CEO of Ookla. “It is important to note that while the internet itself should handle elevated usage, there may be impacts to speed as people continue to move their daily activities increasingly online. While the core of the internet remains stable, some ISP networks may struggle to keep up.”

Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index compares internet speed data at the country level from around the world each month. Data for the Speedtest Global Index comes from the over ten million consumer-initiated tests taken daily by people seeking to understand the performance and quality of their internet connection. As of the March 2020 update, the Speedtest Global Index also includes data on latency and jitter for all included countries.

Ookla is closely monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of internet networks across the globe and adding regular updates here: https://www.speedtest.net/insights/blog/tracking-covid-19-impact-global-internet-performance/