India skids three spots to 118 in global mobile speed ranking: Report

India recorded 14.00 Mbps median mobile download speed in June 2022 which is slightly lower than the 14.28 Mbps recorded in May 2022, according to network intelligence and connectivity insights company Ookla.

This decrease in download speeds has brought the country to the 118th position in June from 115th in May 2022, Ookla says in its Speedtest Global Index for June 2022.

However, India's median download speeds on fixed broadband witnessed an improvement from 47.86 Mbps in May 2022 to 48.11 Mbps in June 2022, taking the country's global ranking three notches up, to 72nd position in June 2022 from 75th in May 2022.

Norway continues to be at the No. 1 spot for overall global median mobile speeds, while Chile has reclaimed its No. 1 position from Singapore, which landed at the No. 2 spot, for overall global fixed broadband speeds.

Papua New Guinea and Gabon registered the highest growth for mobile download speeds and fixed broadband speeds respectively in June 2022.

Ookla's Speedtest Global Index compares speed test data from around the world each month.

Data for the Global Index comes from the hundreds of millions of tests taken by real people using speed tests every month to test their Internet performance, the company says.

Meanwhile, telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm has made an earnest money deposit of ₹14,000 crore for the upcoming auction of 5G spectrum, Fortune India reported on Monday.

Bharti Airtel has deposited the second highest amount as earnest money deposit (EMD) at ₹5,500 crore. Cash-strapped Vodafone Idea has put in ₹2,200 crore.

Adani Data Networks has submitted ₹100 crore as EMD with the telecom department. The Gautam Adani-led conglomerate is participating in the 5G spectrum auction to provide private network solutions at airports, ports, power generation, transmission, distribution, and other manufacturing operations.

The company had earlier this month clarified that its intention is not to be in the consumer mobility space.

"As we build our own digital platform encompassing super apps, edge data centres, and industry command and control centres, we will need ultra high quality data streaming capabilities through a high frequency and low latency 5G network across all our businesses," it had said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended a certain amount of exclusive spectrum to be earmarked for private 5G networks. As per TRAI's recommendations, non-telecom enterprises would be allocated 5G spectrum for building their private networks for data needs. TRAI, however, added that such enterprises can take spectrum on lease from telecom operators also.

Incumbent telecom operators have opposed the concept of private networks, since enterprise data revenue is expected to be the biggest chunk of operator revenues under 5G. That will take a hit if large enterprises set up private networks.