India saw a slight dip in internet download speeds during March: Ookla

Quite expectedly, India recorded a notable decline in internet speeds in March, primarily because of the stress the networks are under with so many people working from home. The mean mobile download speed fell by 1.68Mbps while mean broadband mobile speeds fell by 3.67Mbps, according to Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index.

The report states that with the networks under strain during the unprecedented lockdown period in India to curb the coronavirus menace, it is natural to see some level of slowdown.

Just how big of a decline are we talking about? India slipped two ranks down for mobile internet speeds and now ranks at 130th. Even in the broadband speed index, India declined two spots compared to the previous month. We’re at rank 71 globally in broadband speeds.

As for mean mobile download speeds, India posted a decline of 1.68Mbps. Mobile download speeds went from 11.83Mbps in February to 10.15Mbps in March 2020 according to the report. Similarly, mean broadband speeds fell from 39.65Mbps to 35.98Mbps.

To be fair, broadband speeds have been seeing a decline since the beginning of 2020. It came down from 41.48Mbps in January to 35.98Mbps in February, showing a drop of 5.5Mbps in speed.

“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 CEO Doug Suttles said in a statement about the report.

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