Mobile Internet Speeds in India are low as compared to other countries. When we talk about India being a developing economy, we forget to mention that it is ranked 128th in the world in terms of mobile data speeds, which is even lower than neighboring countries like Pakistan and Nepal, which have faster mobile data speeds than India.
The average mobile internet download speed in India is 11.58 Mbps which is much slower compared to how huge of a nation and economy India is. A 4G connection should be able to deliver 30-40 Mbps download speed on average and in countries like the UAE, China, Australia, people get speeds over 60 Mbps on average.
This is a major point to ponder over because we are living in a digital world where everything depends on the Internet and we have very slow mobile internet speeds even with having such a huge consumer base. Read on below to find why the mobile internet speed in India is slower as compared to other countries.
The Smartphone Influence
The smartphone influence has completely changed things around. There was a time when only a handful of people were able to afford smartphones and access the internet but things have changed now, with smartphones becoming cheaper and every able to afford a smartphone nowadays. This has led to an increase in data demand. There was a time when users were limited to a 1 GB data limit per day but this restriction has now been removed because of the increased demand.
This increased demand is ultimately affecting the users because the telecom operators are not able to match this high consumer demand. The networks are overburdened and the operators are not able to cope with this which has led to slower internet speeds in the country.
Along with smartphones, we are also seeing an increase in the usage of travel/portable routers that can be configured through 192.168.0.1 and be used with data SIM. Apart from the address 192.168.0.1, these routers can also be configured through 192.168.1.1.
Low Cost Of Data
Another factor that is contributing to slower internet speeds in the country is the low cost of data. We, Indians, want to have unlimited internet on our phones that we can access any time but we are not ready to pay for this unlimited internet which has led to the low cost of mobile data in the country. One advantage of this low cost of data is that the internet is accessible to a wider area but it has led to overcrowding and network congestion.
This network congestion and overcrowding have led to low-quality 4G networks in the country that are affecting the overall mobile internet speeds in the country.
Financial Crisis
Our telecom industry is in a dire financial crisis and the network operators seem to be lacking the required financial budget to make the infrastructure upgrades. The operators just don’t have enough budget to make the necessary upgrades, especially fiber as a result of which our country is facing this issue.
It is estimated by the experts that India has more than 5 lakh telecom towers but out of these 5 lakh towers, only about a quarter of them are connected by fiber, the rest are using the old technologies. Even in our Capital, Delhi, the current infrastructure can only fulfill half of the current demand of consumers due to which the internet is not up to par even in the capital.
Because of the usage of old technologies, the speeds are slow. To ensure that the mobile internet will be up to par, it is required that the telecom operators use modern technologies, especially fiber all over the country that will improve the internet speeds by a lot.
Spectrum Allotment
Spectrum allotment is also a major problem that is causing the mobile internet speeds in the country to slow down. According to some reports, the spectrum per operator in India is low as compared to other countries which ultimately means that the spectrum per customer will be also poor.
As a result of the poor operator spectrum, the 4G network speeds in the country are poor. The Government of India has allocated a maximum of 15 MHz to GSM operators, such as Airtel, and a maximum of 7.5 MHz to CDMA operators, such as Reliance and Tata.
