January 7, 2014
NEW DELHI: India is eagerly awaiting the launch of Reliance Jio's 4G connection, which promises to offer average internet speed of 49Mbps on the go. This is over 12 times faster than the current average of 4Mbps on the country's 3G networks. In theory, Reliance Jio's 4G network will offer maximum speed of 112Mbps.
January 7, 2014
NEW DELHI: India is eagerly awaiting the launch of Reliance Jio's 4G connection, which promises to offer average internet speed of 49Mbps on the go. This is over 12 times faster than the current average of 4Mbps on the country's 3G networks. In theory, Reliance Jio's 4G network will offer maximum speed of 112Mbps.
Download speed of 49Mbps may seem astounding for those in India; however, the country will still lag far behind the leaders in the global internet race.
When Reliance finally rolls out its 4G network, it will still be nearly 30% slower than the UK-based service provider EE's highest download speed of 300Mbps, the maximum internet speed on a mobile network in the world. EE promises average speed of 25-30Mbps across the UK, with speeds as high as 60Mbps in certain cities.
According to latest data compiled by analytics website Speedtest.net, the US town of Ephrata, Washington DC enjoys average internet speed of 85.54Mbps. However, the national average internet speed of the US is 18.5Mbps. On mobile networks, the maximum speed in the country is 58.25Mbps (AT&T 4G, according to data by PCMag).
Google Fiber, the internet titan's pilot internet project, promises maximum speed of 1Gbps (gigabits per second; 1gigabit = 1024megabits) in the US. However, actual speed delivered in Kansas City under this project is 49.86Mbps, the second highest in US according to Speedtest.net data.
South Korea, widely acknowledged as the most 'connected' nation in the world, has highest broadband internet speed of 53.3Mbps and average speed of 13.3Mbps, according to Akamai. On mobile networks, telecom operator SK Telecom in November claimed that it has achieved maximum internet download speed of 225Mbps on its LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network. LTE-A is a new technology that allows 50% faster data download over mobile networks.
The speed of 225Mbps has been achieved for a demo, while the commercial rollout of the service will be done in the second half of 2014, around the same time when Reliance rolls out its 4G network. This will, in effect, render Reliance's network nearly obsolete in the global race. SK Telecom also plans to offer download speed of 300Mbps on mobile connections, though it has not given a time frame for this.
In Hong Kong too, it's a similar story, with peak speed of 65.1Mbps (the highest in the world) and average speed of 10.8Mbps. The average 4G mobile download speed in the country, according to Akamai, is 20Mbps.
Akamai's data dates back to the July-September quarter, and it is likely that the internet speeds may increase in by the time Reliance's network rolls out.
Another network operator offering 4G in India is Bharti Airtel. The company's network is currently available in cities like Pune, Kolkata and Bangalore and is not available on mobile phones. It offers average download speed of 40Mbps via USB dongles, with theoretical highest speed of 100Mbps.
Thus, it is easy to see that India's fastest consumer internet network will not stand anywhere close to that of mature markets and will even remain far behind upcoming networks in terms of pure download speeds.
Also, the 3G flopshow in India, where only 107 million users (out of an estimated 919 million) use 3G internet on mobile devices, does not bode too well for Reliance's soon-to-be-rolled-out 4G internet. Pricing has been one of the major hindrances for the penetration of 3G, along with patchy network. Thus, Reliance would not only have to maintain a reliable network for its 4G users, but will have to also regulate pricing to promote mass adoption.
With India's growing smartphone market, many a users are likely to spend on high-speed internet on mobile devices for a better user experience, especially since video viewing is expected to be the next big data consumption medium in the country.
Courtesy: Technews
