Airtel’s 4G Speed Fastest, Jio’s 4G Reach Highest in India

Airtel offers faster 4G download speed than others, while Jio 4G network is widely available across India.

The 4G speed battle between Airtel and Reliance Jio continues, where the latest report from OpenSignal puts the former ahead of the latter. Having said that, Jio has taken a lead over its rivals by extending the reach of its 4G network across the country.

The average download speed of Airtel was 7.53 Mbps, followed by Jio in the second place with 5.47 Mbps, the report highlighted. The survey showed that Jio, the latest entrant in the Indian telecommunications markets, was the best in terms of 4G network in the country.

Jio has managed to achieve an availability score of over 95 percent in all of India's regions, said the Open Signal's report titled Mobile Network Experience Report India.

Interestingly, the survey has registered Vodafone and Idea as separate entities despite the recent merger, as the two were operating as separate consumer brands when the survey was conducted, it said.

The report also observed that the price war that started with the entry of Jio may shortly come to an end as operators would "move towards the tiered paid data models familiar in the rest of the mobile world. This means that telcos in India are likely to customise its data plans, depending on the user; their purchasing power and usage.

While speeds are the hallmark of a good data network, it is impressive to see Jio scaling up its 4G reach to over 95 percent of the country, in less than three years.

In addition to this, Reliance Jio also topped on latency experience at 72.20 percent, the least among the operators, followed by Vodafone which recorded 80.42 per cent latency during July-August.

Latency for mobile connectivity refers to the delay in transferring data which starts after a transfer instruction is sent through to the other person. 

Vodafone Idea Limited, now the leader of the Indian telecom space, has its work cut out, needing further impetus to push itself against Airtel and Reliance Jio, which continues to add to its 258 million user base.