HTTP checks from India send a full GET request from the Google LLC node in New Delhi and record the status code, response time, and whether the response completed. CDN platforms with Indian PoPs — Cloudflare, Akamai, and Fastly serve from Mumbai and Chennai, and Google's own CDN serves from its Delhi and Mumbai infrastructure — should return sub-30 ms for cached content. The Delhi node will hit the nearest CDN PoP based on anycast routing, which in most cases is either Delhi or Mumbai.

India is the fastest-growing internet market by new user additions, making HTTP performance from an Indian vantage point increasingly relevant for global web services. An HTTP check from this node reflects what a North Indian user on a well-connected ISP or on Google's own infrastructure would experience reaching your service. High TTFB values from this node when the target is in Europe or the US are expected — a 155 ms RTT to Frankfurt alone means at least 155 ms of network overhead before the first response byte, and TLS adds more.

For services specifically targeting Indian users, an HTTP check from New Delhi that shows a response from a Mumbai CDN PoP (inferred from low response time inconsistent with the Delhi-to-origin distance) confirms that CDN edge selection is working correctly for the North Indian market. If the HTTP check shows a response time consistent with routing all the way to a European or US origin, the CDN either has no India PoP or the GeoDNS steering is sending Delhi traffic to the wrong region.

India has one of the largest internet user populations in the world, estimated at over 800 million active users — the second largest national user base after China. Despite this scale, the internet exchange ecosystem is less developed than in comparable markets. NIXI (National Internet Exchange of India) operates at multiple cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. However, a significant share of intra-India traffic historically transited through Singapore or other international points rather than exchanging domestically, driving up latency for purely Indian inter-ISP traffic.

Mumbai is the primary international internet gateway for India. Multiple submarine cable systems land in Mumbai and Chennai: SEA-ME-WE 4, SEA-ME-WE 5, EIG (Europe India Gateway), IMEWE (India-Middle East-Western Europe), and SAFE all have Indian landing points. Mumbai's cable infrastructure makes it the natural aggregation point for India's international connectivity. Delhi is connected to the international layer via long-haul domestic fibre from Mumbai, adding 10–15 ms of intra-India latency for Delhi-originated traffic to reach submarine cable systems.

Our probe node in India runs on AS396982 (Google LLC) in New Delhi. Google operates significant Cloud infrastructure in India, with regions in Mumbai and Delhi. AS396982 is Google's primary infrastructure ASN globally, meaning this node benefits from Google's private backbone for inter-PoP communication. Reference RTTs from this node: New Delhi to Mumbai ~30 ms, to Singapore ~60 ms, to Hong Kong ~80 ms, to London ~150 ms, to Frankfurt ~155 ms, to New York ~215 ms.

Domestic carriers serving India include Jio (AS55836), Airtel (AS9498), Vodafone Idea, BSNL (AS9829), and Tata Communications (AS6453). Jio and Airtel together serve the majority of mobile internet users. Tata Communications operates one of the largest submarine cable networks globally and provides transit to many Indian ISPs and international carriers peering into India. DE-CIX Mumbai, launched in 2023, adds a new neutral peering point in the financial capital alongside NIXI Mumbai and Mumbai-IX.

Testing from the New Delhi node provides visibility into North Indian network conditions. India is a geographically large country — a result from Delhi does not represent Mumbai or Chennai, which have direct submarine cable access and consequently lower international latency. For comprehensive India coverage, supplementing Delhi tests with a Mumbai-based node is advisable. The Delhi node is most representative for users in North India, Pakistan border regions, and Central Asian traffic that enters India from the north.