BENGALURU: Karnataka has emerged as the the fastest among all states in terms of broadband speeds, with an average download speed of 28.46 Mbps recorded in the month of February. This is 37.4% faster than the rest of the country, according to the latest report by Ookla, the company that runs the popular Speedtest website. In their latest report titled, 'India's digital divide: How Broadband Speed Splits the Nation', the company says that Chennai has some of the fastest internet speeds in the country followed by Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and Visakhapatnam, all of which scored higher than the country's average speed of 20.72 Mbps.
Chennai, with an average download speed of 32.67 Mbps, was at least 57% faster than the country's average, making the internet in Chennai the fastest. Bengaluru reported speeds of 27.2 Mbps on an average, while Delhi ranked fifth with average speeds of 18.16 Mbps. Mumbai ranked the lowest among the four large metro cities with an overall ranking of 8, with fixed broadband speeds of just 12.06 Mbps. Patna is, by far, the slowest city compared to the rest of the country, with speeds averaging 62.4% slower than the country's average. Besides Patna, download speeds in Kanpur, Lucknow, Pune and Nagpur are significantly lower than that of their respective states.
Tamil Nadu, with an average download speed of 27.94 Mbps, stands second behind Karnataka and Mizoram. It has an average download speed of 3.62 Mbps in February, 82.5% slower than the rest of the country. South India dominates the list, with four of the five top spots on the list of states and union territories, the company said in a statement.
"As of February 2018, India ranked 67th in the world in terms of download speed over fixed broadband based on the Speedtest Global Index, with an average speed of 20.72 Mbps. The ranking is an improvement from January, when the country had come in on the 65th position. This improvement is in alignment with Ookla's announcement at the end of 2017 which said India had reported most improvement in fixed broadband download speeds among the world's most populous countries," the report said.