India lost $2.8b due to internet shutdowns in 2020

Srinagar: With 8,927 hours of blacked out or restricted internet access, India topped the list of 21 countries that curbed the citizens’ web access in 2020.

According to the Global Cost of Internet Shutdowns report released by Top10VPN, India accounted for nearly three-quarters of the $4 billion lost worldwide to internet curbs as the country recorded a loss of $2.8 billion.

The report said there were 1,655 hours of internet blackouts and 7,272 hours of throttled bandwidth which cost India $2,779.3 million.

“As in previous years, India continued to restrict internet access more than any other country – over 75 times in 2020,” read the report. “The majority of these short blackouts were highly-targeted, affecting groups of villages or individual city districts and so were not included in this report, which focuses on larger region-wide shutdowns.”

“The true economic cost is therefore likely to be even higher than the $2.8BN we have calculated,” it added. (PTK)