Ping from India sends ICMP echo requests from the Google LLC node in New Delhi to your target. Reference RTTs: Mumbai ~30 ms, Singapore ~60 ms, Hong Kong ~80 ms, Dubai ~70 ms, London ~150 ms, Frankfurt ~155 ms, New York ~215 ms, Los Angeles ~230 ms. These figures reflect paths via Google's backbone to the public internet peering points nearest the target. Delhi-sourced traffic to international destinations travels via Mumbai's cable landing stations, so the ~30 ms Delhi-to-Mumbai domestic segment is included in all international RTTs from this node.

India is a useful ping test origin for operators targeting South Asian users. A low RTT from the Delhi node to your service means Indian users in North India will experience low-latency access. Google's AS396982 is well-peered globally, so ping results from this node are generally close to optimal for paths where Google has private backbone capacity. For paths where Google exits to public transit, results may be slightly better than what a typical Indian ISP would show, since Google's peering relationships are broader than most commercial ISPs.

ICMP behavior from India to certain Middle Eastern and South Asian destinations can show elevated loss due to transit provider ICMP rate-limiting rather than real congestion. If ping from the India node shows intermittent loss to a target in the Gulf region or South Asia, cross-check with a TCP port check before concluding there is a real path issue. Persistent symmetric loss across multiple test runs is a stronger signal than isolated spikes.

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.