Internet speed: Airtel leads in both 3G and 4G, beating Jio in overall speed

The latest OpenSignal report said Airtel, the leading telecom operator for both 3G and 4G download speed in India, has beaten Reliance Jio in overall speed as well.

Airtel’s overall average download speed of 6 Mbps on mobile data networks beat out Jio’s average of 5.1 Mbps.
OpenSignal awards go to Airtel
The new development will be big a blow to Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Jio, which has more than 160 million 4G subscribers on its nationwide LTE network. Airtel, India’s #1 telecom operator, recently kicked off a campaign seeking wireless subscribers to shift its 4G network.

In fact, Reliance Jio is not even in the second position in 4G download speed in India. Idea Cellular has joined the OpenSignal speed test with second rank. Vodafone is in the fourth position below Reliance Jio’s third rank.

Reliance Jio has got just fourth rank in overall mobile Internet speed in India, OpenSignal said. Airtel, BSNL, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio and Vodafone are the top operators in India in terms of overall mobile Internet speed.

In terms of 3G speed test, Airtel, BSNL, Idea Cellular and Vodafone are in the top four positions.

The silver lining for Reliance Jio is the award for 4G availability. OpenSignal said Reliance Jio is the dominant player in terms of 4G availability.

Airtel has received fourth position in 4G availability below Reliance Jio, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.

OpenSignal said Indian operators are focused on growing LTE’s reach rather than injecting more speed into their 4G services. OpenSignal recorded 4G availability increases for every major operator over the last six months. All of India’s major 4G providers have now crossed the 65 percent LTE availability threshold, and three of them are now nearing the 70 percent mark.

OpenSignal tracked slight drops in LTE speeds for three operators.

Airtel sweeps speed awards

Airtel held onto the 3G and 4G speed awards since OpenSignal’s last report. Airtel wrested the overall speed award away from Jio, locking down the top spot in all three of the speed categories.

Reliance Jio delivered download speeds of 5.1 Mbps in tests, compared to Airtel’s 6 Mbps in India.

Jio is ahead of its key rivals in 4G availability, beating all three by at least 27 percentage points. LTE signal on Jio’s network is available 96.4 percent of the time against 95.6 percent in the October report.

Idea and Vodafone are closing in on the 70 percent mark. Airtel demonstrated the biggest improvement in 4G reach, boosting its 4G availability by more than 9 percentage points to 66.8 percent.

Airtel dominated in 4G speed nationally. Idea Cellular bested its larger competitor in both west and east Uttar Pradesh, while Vodafone won the regional 4G speed awards in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

Airtel has bagged the 4G speed award with an average download of 9.3 Mbps, but well below the global 4G download average of 16.9 Mbps.

Airtel held onto OpenSignal’s 3G speed award, though its HSPA download test decline from 3.6 Mbps to 2.7 Mbps.

Vodafone’s 3G speeds dropped by nearly a megabit between reports, while Idea experienced a smaller decline in 3G speed.

BSNL achieved gains in 3G speeds.

The OpenSignal report said nearly all of the operators offering 4G services in New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai have racked up higher availability scores in those cities than their national averages — often by 6 percentage points or more.

Baburajan K