India has witnessed the fastest 5G rollout in the world (claimed by the govt officials and telecom operators). The telecom service providers (TSPs) including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have poured in billions of dollars to set up the 5G infra and provide services to consumers in all parts of the country. Thanks to that, India has continuously jumped up in the rankings of delivering the fastest median download speed to consumers.
Ookla, a leader in network insights and intelligence globally, keeps updating its monthly performance report titled 'Speedtest Global Index'. In this report, Ookla ranks countries based on the median download speed they are offering.
In Jan 2024, India ranked 18th in the Speedtest Global Index report by Ookla. India jumped 3 ranks month over month and is now in the top 20 countries. The way India has been moving up in the list, it wouldn't be too far when it finds a place for itself in the top 10 list. In the 10th rank is Iceland with a median download speed of 126.74 Mbps. India's median download speed in Jan 2024 was 99.03 Mbps. There's not a very big difference.
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What has Changed for India with 5G?
5G has been able to deliver extremely fast download speeds to consumers. Since Indian consumers are getting 5G at no additional cost (over the 4G plans) from their telecom operators, the data consumption with 5G is only going up.
Before the launch of 5G, in Sep 2022, India ranked 188th in the Ookla Speedtest Global Index with a median download speed of 13.87 Mbps. But in Jan 2024, that changed to 18th rank with a median download speed of 99.03 Mbps. There are still many consumers in the country who are yet to experience 5G for the first time.
As more people adopt 5G services, India's rank will keep going up in the list.
Read More - One Year of 5G in India, What has changed
No 5G Use Cases
The sad thing right now for India consumers as well as the telecom operators is that there are no substantial use cases of 5G. Thus, while the high-speed networks are there, after a certain point, they don't create any difference in anyone's lives. The government, academia, and the industry players need to work together to find use cases of 5G that can help the consumers improve their lives and also enable the telecom operators to monetise their 5G networks.
