Per hour cost of internet shutdown is going up in India, shows data

In 2021, an hour of shutdown cost the country $0.5 mn; in 2020, it was $0.31 mn

On March 7, West Bengal ann­o­u­nced that it would be shutting down the internet to prevent cheating in Class X exams in sensitive areas across the state. According to data from Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), this was the sixth shutdown in the country in 2022.

The number of shutdowns had dec­reased from 129 in 2020 to 45 in 2021. However, a Business Standard analysis of data from VPN review site top10vpn.com shows that the cost of internet shutdowns has been increasing.

According to top10vpn.com, in 2021, India lost $582.8 million to internet shutdowns. The country had stopped internet services for 1,157 hours affecting 59.1 million users.

While the cost was much lower than the one incurred in 2020, when the country lost a whopping $2.8 billion to shutdowns that impacted internet services for 8,927 hours, data shows that the cost per hour of shutdown in 2021 had jumped up 60.6 per cent compared to 2020. The number of users impacted had also increased six times, from 10.3 million to 59.1 million.

In 2019, shutdowns cost the country $1.3 billion, impacting 8.4 million users. Between 2019 and 2020, the increase in shutdown cost was just 1.2 per cent (see chart 1).

Although India-specific data is not available for shutdowns during examinations, data from top10vpn.com shows that the cost per shutdown due to examination had increased four times between 2020 and 2021. In 2021, seven shutdowns due to examination resulted in a loss of $78.7 million, translating into losses of $11.2 million per shutdown.

In contrast, in 2020, 43 shutdowns due to examinations had cost the world $119.4 million or $2.8 million per shutdown (see chart 2).

Even though the number of shutdowns reduced by two-thirds in 2021 compared to the previous year, they are still higher than the numbers recorded in 2016. According to SFLC data, India has administered 558 shutdowns as of 2022. In the first two months of 2022, the country issued as many shutdowns as it did in the whole of 2014 (see chart 3).

With the number of internet users increasing in the country and more services being conducted on­line, the cost of internet shutdowns will rise in the coming years. The government needs to devise better ways to counter misinformation.