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Airtel Continues Its Domination in Download Speeds, Jio Leads in 4G Availability in India: OpenSignal

Airtel Continues Its Domination in Download Speeds, Jio Leads in 4G Availability in India: OpenSignal

By Jagmeet Singh | Updated: 1 November 2018 14:31 IST

Airtel reportedly offered the fastest download speed experience in 16 telecom circles across India

Highlights

Bharti Airtel scored 7.53Mbps of overall 4G and 3G speeds
OpenSignal reports Airtel's over 25 percent growth in download speeds
Jio continues to succeed on the part of 4G availability in India

Airtel has continued its domination in data download speeds with 7.53Mbps of overall 4G and 3G speeds, followed by Reliance Jio, Vodafone, Idea, and BSNL that recorded overall download speeds of 5.47Mbps, 5.20Mbps, 4.92Mbps, and 2.70Mbps respectively, according to a network report by OpenSignal. Despite its leadership in downloads speeds, the New Delhi-headquartered telco hasn't been able to take on Reliance Jio on the part of 4G availability. The OpenSignal report highlights that the Mumbai-based operator continued its success with a growth in 4G availability from 96.4 percent to 96.7 percent. Samsung, which is a network gear partner for Reliance Jio's networks already predicted that the operator will offer its 4G connectivity to 99 percent of India's total population by this Diwali. The telco is also one of the initial operators to explore different use cases around 5G in India.

Titled 'Mobile Network Experience Report', the OpenSignal report for the month of November, with a sample period from June 1 to August 29, claims that Airtel recorded over 25 percent growth on the part of download speeds in the past six months. The operator also reportedly saw 9.96Mbps of 4G download speeds on an average in the sample period, whereas Vodafone came at the second spot with 6.59Mbps of 4G download speeds and Idea reached the third position with 6.29Mbps of 4G download speeds. Reliance Jio, on the other hand, reportedly saw 5.47Mbps of 4G download speeds in the same period.

The OpenSignal report also claims that Airtel offered the fastest download speed experience in 16 telecom circles across India, alongside delivering the highest average download speed of 9.9Mbps in Orissa. The operator also tied with Reliance Jio in Himachal Pradesh and with Idea in West Bengal. However, Vodafone surfaced as the market leader in Gujarat, while Jio came top in the Jammu and Kashmir as well as Uttar Pradesh (East) circles. In the Uttar Pradesh (West), Jio tied with Idea.

Photo Credit: OpenSignal

While Airtel has continued its success on the download speeds front, it is yet to take on Jio when it comes to 4G availability. The latest OpenSignal report shows that Jio dominated all 22 telecom circles in the country with its extensive 4G availability that has scored over 95 percent overall in all regions and topped 97 percent in 10 of the circles, including the Kolkata metro circle. Moreover, Jio's average 4G available score across all the 22 circles were analysed at 96.7 percent.

After Jio, it's Idea, as per the OpenSignal report, that managed to score over 80 percent in 4G availability in three regions, while Airtel and Vodafone managed to have over 80 percent availability in two regions each.

In terms of upload speeds, Idea led the race in 10 circles with the best average score of 3.93Mbps in Punjab. Vodafone, on the other hand, was reported to have its leadership in three regions, including the Delhi and Kolkata metro circles, while Airtel won in two regions and Jio managed a draw in two circles. Notably, no operator was able to pass the 4Mbps upload speed mark.

Photo Credit: OpenSignal

Aside from having its leadership in 4G availability, Jio dominated the latency experience in India by winning in 17 circles and drawing in further two, as per the OpenSignal report. The best average latency experience score that Jio bagged was 54.7 milliseconds in Mumbai. This is reportedly over 10ms better than Idea that emerged as the closest rival for Jio in the same circle. Furthermore, the average latency rate offered by Jio in the country is said to be at 72.2ms - an 8ms improvement on its closest rival Vodafone that received the 3G latency score of 101.70. This was over 20ms better than Airtel's 123.99 3G latency score.

On the part of latency experience on 4G networks, Vodafone came as second after Jio with 70.19 scores, while Idea stood at third with 76.88 scores and Airtel at fourth with 68.33 scores.

"While Jio won our overall Latency Experience award, Airtel came top of our 4G latency table, whereas Vodafone led in our 3G latency analysis. In our 4G latency analysis, there was a very tight grouping at the top with less than 4ms separating Airtel, Jio and Vodafone's scores - although Airtel has managed to edge ahead of Vodafone, who came top in this category six months ago. However Vodafone's 3G latency score was over 20ms better than Airtel's - and it was this difference which saw Airtel sink to third place in our overall Latency Experience table," the OpenSignal report said.

The OpenSignal report also mentioned a three-way tie between Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone in terms of mobile video experience. For the November report, the company collected 10,509,371,943 data points from over 1.7 million users during the period between June 1 and August 29.

Commenting on the latest OpenSignal report, Bharti Airtel CTO Randeep Sekhon in a statement to Gadgets 360 said, "This latest report is yet another reaffirmation of Airtel's obsession with network excellence. Our focus remains on building the fastest and the best network that enables a high-quality digital experience for discerning customers who prefer network quality over deals and discounts. Over the last 90 days, our pace of deployment and investment has continued to pick up. This is allowing us to decisively win with 4G customers in the top 500 cities. We remain committed to leveraging state of the art technologies and tools to delivering India's decisively best network and sustain our leadership."

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