Telecommunication in India

Development of telephone and internet connections

With an average download speed of 50.87 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, India ranks 81st in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 49.02 Mbit/second (37th place).
In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, India comes 67th with a download speed of 30.96 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 7 Mbit was only enough for 128th place.

The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in February 2023 from 180 countries.

The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100 percent mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.

Access to the internet in India from 1990 - 2021

Broadband internet in India 2001 - 2021

India is lagging behind in the expansion of broadband internet connections. Around 46 percent of all residents have access to the internet. Around 2 percent have their own fast internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the internet via mobile communications.

The increasing prevalence of cell phones and the simultaneous decline in landline phones clearly indicate a change in India. While the number of landlines has fallen significantly in recent years, the spread of cell phones has risen to 82 cell phone subscriptions per 100 people at last count. Such a clear shift does not occur in all countries, but the trend points in the same direction internationally.

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