India records slowest 4G LTE speed in the world
According to a report by UK-based wireless coverage mapping company OpenSignal, India has recorded the slowest 4G LTE speed in the world at an average speed of 6.13 Mbps. In its periodic 'State of LTE' report, OpenSignal calculates the availability and speed of 4G LTE networks across several international markets including India. The latest February 2018 report is followed by the November 2017 report.
While India was ranked last out of 77 countries on the list, Singapore came first with an average 4G speed of 46.64 Mbps, followed by the Netherlands and Norway. Notably, India's dismal performance in terms of 4G speed is being attributed to the country's falling mobile data rates due to which millions of new users have come online over the last few months.
"India and Thailand ... both countries provide far-reaching access to LTE signals, but in both cases their 4G networks lacked the capacity to deliver connection speeds much faster than 3G technologies," the report said.
In terms of availability of 4G signals, India came 14th (down from 11th position in November 2017) with 86.26% of Indians having 4G availability. Sri Lanka, El Salvador, and Algeria fared as the bottom three countries on the list with their 4G availability falling below 45%, while South Korea, Japan, and Norway ranked as the top three countries.
In the report from last year, OpenSignal touted network congestion as the main reason behind low data speeds, since countries like the US and Russia, that are rich but highly populated, also ranked in the poorer half of the list.
