Especially in today’s context, one can’t function or work without it. Organizations run on it, businesses are defined by it, enterprises function on it and everyday trade and commerce cannot function in isolation with it. Whether it is for trade, entrepreneurial, social networking or regular communications, a world without the internet is like a world without happiness in it. Such profound has been the impact of the Internet in our lives that it’s just simply impossible to imagine our contemporary world in the absence of it. For instance, would you have been able to read this string of text in the absence of the World Wide Web?
But the above told, if there’s a matter of concern that stares India blankly in its eye then it is the Internet speeds in India.
While much of the world has progressed in this regard, the Internet Speeds in India still leave a lot to be desired. What can be done in this regard is something that not many are aware of but something that everybody would like to undergo immediate improvement.
This is an all-important need in the context especially in the context the fact that at the heart of the country’s reform(s) measures lies the Digital India plan, a project close to the heart of the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. Yet India, home to several inspiring start-up missions, a country that has launched several mind-numbingly successful space missions continues to struggle with the speed of the Internet.
More attention toward this matter emanated from a piece of a recent report that made it to page 1 of the major newspapers. It was reported recently that the Internet speeds in India severely lag behind the rest of the world despite a 16% year-on-year increase in mobile and a 28.5% increase in fixed broadband speeds.
So the question is why is the country struggling with poor internet speed while there are improvements in physical infrastructure?
The above told, it must be highlighted as to which are the countries in the world that functions with high-speed internet?
To that end, Singapore continues to remain the country with the fastest internet speed with an increase in mean download speed over the fixed broadband of 5.6%.
But specifically in Asia, Japan remained the country that was among the ‘Speed Leaders,’ while several countries in the region of South Asia lagged severely where it came to overall internet speed. These included, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
That told, the ‘speed laggers’ also included several countries from the rest of the world such as the Kingdom of Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam, The Philippines, and Jordan.
Moving on, several countries are also catching up in the context of being ‘mobile-focused,’ such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Lebanon, Oman, all of them being from the Middle East.
The report also highlighted the fact that the global internet speeds are increasing all the time while there are also countries such as South Korea that are continuously enjoying high download speed. But one wonders, when will the situation increase in India, a country where there at – at this point in time, according to fresh estimates- as many as 627 million users. Imagine the number of people who constantly depend on high-speed internet on a daily basis and are still devoid of it completely.