(a) whether the country’s average mobile internet download speed is around 9.01 Megabyte Per Second (Mbps) and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether as per a survey, the country ranks 109th in terms of average mobile internet download speed and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor along with the reaction of the Government thereto;

(c) the ranks of other developed and developing countries in the said survey; and

(d) the steps taken by the Government to improve the said mobile internet download speed in the country?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

(a) to (c ) As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) analytics portal, the details of Telecom Service Providers (TSPs)-wise average mobile internet download speed for 4G technology is enclosed as Annexure. No authentic information is available to the Government on the average mobile internet download speed in other countries.

(d) Internet speed depends on various parameters such as technology deployed, network coverage, number of simultaneous users accessing the internet, connectivity to the website being accessed etc. The speed of mobile internet is further dependent on a number of factors such as distance from Base Transceiver Station (BTS) serving the customer, the number of simultaneous users being served by the BTS, the traffic handled by the BTS etc. As such, the mobile users may experience different speeds at different location and time of usage.

In order to facilitate improvement in Quality of Services and expansion of telecommunication services including mobile internet services, the Department of Telecommunications has initiated a series of policy initiatives and development programs as below :-

(i) making available sufficient spectrum for mobile services including auction of 965 MHz across different bands (700, 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500 MHz bands) in 2016.
(ii) allowing Spectrum Sharing, Trading and liberalisation of administratively allocated spectrum as per guidelines.
(iii) permitting sharing of active as well as passive infrastructure by the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) for achieving higher utilisation efficiency.
(iv) permitting Internet Protocol (IP) based interconnections between TSPs in addition to the prevailing arrangements.
(v) notification of Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016 in November 2016 for regulating underground infrastructure (optical fibre) and over-ground infrastructure (mobile towers).
(vi) periodic review of expansion of mobile networks and related improvements carried out by TSPs.

A total of 798,054 additional BTS have been installed by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in the Country from July 2015 to June, 2018.

As on 1st July 2018, About 18.33 lakh BTS have been installed in the country.

Network upgradation and improvement is an ongoing process for each TSP, based on changing traffic volumes, customer needs and market competition.