India Lost $2.8 Billion in World’s Worst Internet Shutdowns in 2020

There is no doubt in the fact that the internet has become the most important necessities for us after food, cloth and housing. This is why India ranks at the second position on the list of countries with most internet users in 2020. So, when our government decides to shut or slow down the internet due to an array of different reasons, it affects not just millions of users but for businesses as well, adding big financial losses. 

As per the latest news surfacing all over, India lost a whopping $2.8 billion in the world’s worst internet shutdowns in 2020. The country is the second most affected nation by COVID-19 pandemic and this big loss has added more pain to its woes. A report published on Top10VPN, a company based out of London, UK asserted that India restricted internet access more than 75 times in 2020 alone, which is on the higher side than any other country in the world. 

Credit: Top10VPN

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One of the biggest reasons for such a high monetary loss is the complete internet shutdown in most parts of Jammu and Kashmir. The move was taken in the month of August 2019 and continued till March 2020 after the government of India abrogated Article 370 of the constitution. Because of this, the people living in the valley faced business losses, had limited access to medicine and affected thousands of children in schools. Jammu and Kashmir, which is home to over 7 million people, still use 2G internet speed to go online even after this restriction was lifted in March 2020.

The report further states that Indians experienced throttled bandwidth for around 8,927 hours which affected more than 10.3 million people across the country. The next in this not so much coveted list of countries with the world’s worst internet shutdown are Belarus and Yemen with loss amounting to $336.4 and $236.8 million. 

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In total, over 27,150 hours were recorded owing to the internet disruptions all over the world in 2020. This is almost 49% higher in comparison to the previous year affecting more than 268 million people worldwide.