Despite having one of the fastest 5G rollouts and being the world’s largest data consumer, India has experienced a sharp decline in global rankings for median data speeds. According to Ookla Speedtest, India dropped from 12th to 26th position among 112 countries between April-June and July-September this year.
Ookla reported that India’s median download speeds fell by 15%, from 107.03 Mbps in April-June to 91.7 Mbps in July-September, the lowest since October 2023. Upload speeds also dropped by 11%, from 9.21 Mbps to 8.17 Mbps, the lowest since September 2023. While India still exceeds the global average for download speeds (56.76 Mbps), it lags behind in upload speeds (11.04 Mbps).
GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer John Giusti noted that India’s average 5G download speeds have dropped 19% from 300 Mbps last year to 243 Mbps currently, attributing this decline to capacity constraints. He emphasized that spectrum availability is crucial for telecom operators to meet the increasing demand, especially as data consumption in India grows at 50% annually.
The shift to 5G standalone networks, first initiated by Reliance Jio and now followed by Bharti Airtel, has also seen a decline in speeds. According to Ookla, 5G standalone download speeds dropped 32%, from 436.3 Mbps in Q2 2023 to 296.22 Mbps in Q2 2024. This is largely due to a surge in 5G users and rising data consumption, with Reliance Jio only completing its nationwide 5G coverage by the end of December 2023.
Experts, including those from GSMA and IIT Madras, have expressed concerns about the increasing strain on India’s network infrastructure. A study by IIT Madras projects that by 2027, 80% of the combined network capacity of all telecom operators will be in use. Data consumption is expected to rise from 30 GB per subscriber per month today to 50 GB by 2027, and 75 GB by 2030.
David Koilpillai, chairperson of the spectrum working group at Bharat 6G Alliance and professor at IIT Madras, stressed the urgent need for more spectrum allocation to meet growing capacity demands by 2027. Ericsson has also projected that India will need to roll out 5G Advanced services by 2027, in preparation for the eventual transition to 6G by 2030.
