Cloud optimization service provider Akamai released its State of the Internet report for the first quarter or 2011, and the results highlight a couple of issues pertaining to India’s internet development.
Foremost among them is average internet connection speed, which for India overall was 0.8 Mbps. The nation has a higher percentage of ‘narrowband’ connections (below 256 kbps) at 35 percent than any other country in the study. To put things in perspective the next highest was Venezuela at 9.4 percent.
But things are changing for India, as the average connection speed is growing at about 0.7 percent each quarter. The number of users coming online is growing, particularly in rural areas thanks to investment from the government. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, 2011 will represent a 98 percent jump in rural internet users, bringing it to 24 million by year’s end.
Akamai’s local Managing Director Sanjay Singh elaborated on the report, as well as the country’s rapid development:
The number of unique IP addresses connecting to our platform from India grew by 21 percent in Q1. India is clearly at the cusp of a mobile data explosion and it will be interesting to track how the newly launched 3G networks will shape the trends in the coming quarters.
We’ve charted some of the data below so that you can get a general sense for how India compares. Note how India stands out in the “% Below 256kbps” section. If you navigate over to “Average Connection Speed,” Japan and Korea still lead the way.
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