5G download speeds in India have reached 500 Mbps on 5G test networks, according to the Speedtest Intelligence report from Ookla.
Bharti Airtel announced the launch of 5G services in eight cities. Reliance Jio said its 5G beta trial of Jio True 5G for All will be available on October 5 in four Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi.

Telecom operators have been testing their networks before the October 1 launch which saw a range of 5G download speeds: from low double-digit (16.27 Mbps) to 809.94 Mbps. This data points to the fact that the operators are recalibrating their networks. 5G speeds will be more stable as these networks will enter the commercial stage.

Jio’s 5G network showed almost 600 Mbps download speed in Delhi. In Delhi, Airtel reached download speed at 197.98 Mbps while Jio touched 598.58 Mbps in June 2022. In Kolkata, Airtel’s download speed was 33.83 Mbps while Jio had download speed at 482.02 Mbps.

In Mumbai, Airtel has reached 271.07 Mbps download speed compared to Jio’s 515.38 Mbps download since June 2022. In Varanasi, Airtel achieved 5G download speed at 516.57 Mbps to Jio’s 485.22 Mbps download speed since June 2022.

According to the Speedtest Global Index, India ranked 117th in the world for mobile download speed at 13.52 Mbps in August 2022. These 5G results show that 5G speeds are far superior than India’s existing network.

As per Ookla’s recent consumer survey, 89 percent of Indian smartphone users are ready to upgrade to 5G. Operators have an existing addressable base of devices that they can target from the start, and over the past year the number of 5G-capable devices has been on the rise.

Among Speedtest users, Jio saw the largest increase in 5G-capable devices (67.4 percent), followed by Airtel (61.6 percent), and Vi India (56 percent).