As the world is looking at APAC region for the future growth, Internet infrastructure is playing a vital role to keep the market live up to the expectations. Unfortunately, the disappointing slow improvement in the average internet speed in India and China is holding the APAC region from conquering the world. According to Akamai’s State of the Internet Report for Q3, 2016, the average internet speed in India has clocked 4.1 Mbps, with 14% QoQ growth. The growth rate, however, is not convincing enough as India stands at the last position in the list of APAC countries with average internet speed in Q3 2016.
Average Internet Speed in India Q3 2016
Annually, the average Internet speed in India has increased by 62%. In the third quarter of 2015, India had an average Internet speed of just 2.5 Mbps. Within the last 12 months, the Internet infrastructure in India has improved significantly, as the country emerges the third fastest growing country by the average internet speed in APAC region.Â
The 14% QoQ growth in the average internet speed in India signs the accelerated infrastructure improvement. To put this in perspective, the country witnessed a small 3.2% QoQ growth in average internet speed in Q2 2016.Â
However, India still has the lowest ranking in APAC and stands at 105 globally. With the difference of 22.2 Mbps in average Internet speed with the highest-ranked South Korea, India has got a long way to go. Additionally, the average Internet speed of India was lower by nearly 2.2 Mbps from the global average connection speed of 6.3 Mbps.
Average Peak Internet Speed in India Q3 2016
India enjoyed average peak Internet speed 27 Mbps in the third quarter, a YoY growth of 45%. In Q3 2015, the country clocked 18.7 Mbps as the average peak internet speed, which was little more than the half of the average peak Internet speed in India in Q3 2016.
In the first quarter of 2016, India saw the highest increase in peak connection speed (25.5Mbps), with a QoQ change of 20%. Since then, the increase has slowed down, with 2.5% change in Q2 and 3.2% change in Q3.Â
India ranks at 107 globally in Q3 2016, and, again, the lowest in APAC region in the list of countries with average peak internet speed.Â
Mobile Internet Speed in India Q3 2016
Akamai report highlights the improving mobile internet conditions in India for the very first time. Surprisingly, India has fared well in the list of APAC countries. Among the 15 countries in the list, India ranks at 4th position with 3.5 Mbps average mobile internet speed in Q3 2016.
The exploded adoption of smartphone and growing mobile data consumption has been pushing mobile carriers to provide faster internet connectivity on mobile. Also, the launch of Reliance Jio has created an unprecedented demand for 4G connectivity, making the other carriers to up the ante. The low price VoLTE enabled Smartphones from Chinese manufacturers have further fueled the demand for high-speed mobile Internet connectivity in India.
State of Internet: APAC Region
Overall, the APAC region still leads the average internet speed. South Korea and Hongkong take the 1st and 2nd positions respectively, in terms of average internet speed. Compared to the global 6.3Â Mbps average, South Korea enjoys an average internet speed of 26.3 Mbps, followed by Hongkong with 20.1 Mbps. Interestingly, despite 2.5% slow down in average internet speed, South Korea still tops the chart with distinctive margin.
The state of improving internet infrastructure can be understood with the fact that 11 of the 15 countries in APAC region had registered positive QoQ growth. In fact, in three of those eleven countries, namely Vietnam with 22%, India with 14% and Australia with 13%, the QoQ growth has been in double-digit. However, Thailand witnessed the biggest setback as the average internet speed went down by 15% compared to the previous quarter.
Nine countries in APAC region saw peak average speed above 50 Mbps. Indonesia had the highest gain, YoY of 220%, while Australia and Japan had the lowest at 12% each.
In terms of mobile connection speed, Australia boasts the highest in the APAC region, with a speed of 12.8 Mbps. It has deep LTE penetration, according to Akamai, available to 98% of the population.
According to Ericsson’s Mobility Report, APAC has the highest share of mobile data traffic, nearly 2,676,843 terabytes in 2016 alone. Further predictions show that by 2020, APAC region will show 13,712,874 terabytes of mobile traffic.
