Akamai Report Indicates Growing Internet Penetration In India

Akamai Technologies has released the third edition of its quarterly ‘State of the Internet’ report. The same can be downloaded at www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet. As the company’s third published edition, this report also provides a quarter-over-quarter view into trends.

Insights on India

India ranked 20th in terms of number of observed IP addresses with 2.6 million connections. In Q3, the growth in IP addresses was 23 percent. In comparison, China had 38 million and Unites States had 109 million unique IPs, while being ranked at positions 2 and 1 respectively. As far as number of IP addresses per capita is concerned, India ranks a low 153, with 2.3 unique IPs per thousand people. In comparison, China had 30 unique IPs per thousand people and United States had 360 unique IPs per thousand people, while being ranked at positions 94 and 6 respectively.

The percentage of Internet connections from India with speeds above 256 Kbps was at 74 percent, indicating gradual shift from dial-up speeds to high speed connectivity. Moving further, the percentage of Internet connections from India with speeds above 2 Mbps was at 5 percent, having grown 16 percent compared to Q2. In comparison, China had 4.3 percent connections above 2 Mbps and United States had 64 percent connections above 2 Mbps.

More from Biztech

Future Group - Reliance Retail Deal approved by CCI RBI ban on cryptocurrencies takes effect; prohibition could force investors to tap the black market

India ranked 12th in terms of global attack traffic origination in Q3, contributing 1.6 percent to observed global attack traffic – last quarter India was ranked at 15th on the same index.

Sanjay Singh, managing director - India, Akamai Technologies, said, “During the third quarter of 2008, Akamai observed web-traffic originating from 179 unique countries around the world. In Q3, we saw 23 percent growth in terms of new IPs from India. This increase may be attributable to more people turning to the World Wide Web for news and video content related to the Beijing Olympic Games, which were held in August. We also noted a gradual improvement in terms of IP per capita, which increased to 2.3 unique IPs per 1,000 people, and believe India is moving in the right direction and is poised for significant growth in Internet adoption in the coming years.”

Global connectivity saw big advances in the third quarter, with various undersea cable projects getting underway or nearing completion, the commercial launch of WiMAX services in a number of countries, and the announcement of fiber-to-the-premises services that will bring gigabit-speed connections to subscribers in Japan, the Ukraine, and the Netherlands.