Bharti Airtel has emerged as the winner in video streaming, voice app experience and download speeds, and Reliance Jio Infocomm in 4G availability and coverage, according to a report by OpenSignal.

Upload speed is becoming increasingly important in mobile services, as social media, social sharing and video chat apps are being used more widely. Mobile users are moving away from content consumption to content creation, which gives operators with the fastest upload speeds a distinct advantage.

Vodafone continued to dominate in upload speed nationally with a score of 3.9 MBPS, while both Vodafone and Idea continue to have a fairly comfortable lead — nearly 24 per cent faster than Airtel, 42 per cent faster than RJio, and three times faster than BSNL, the mobile analytics firm said.

Users continue to enjoy the best video experience on Airtel’s network. The operator maintained its lead position and upgraded its rating from Fair to Good. Vodafone, too, joined Airtel in the Good rating category. The data was collected for a three-month period between December 1, 2019 and February 28, 2020.

“We recorded the highest increase on its network, as the operator boosted its score to close the gap on the market leader. This means that users on both these networks now experience faster video load times and fewer interruptions during playback while streaming videos on their smartphone using mobile data services,” it added.

RJio and Idea, as they came toe-to-toe, ended up in the Fair ratings category. A Fair rating is characterised by sluggish load times and frequent stalling, most notably on higher resolutions. Meanwhile, in the video experience observed by users on the 3G-only network, BSNL, remained in the Poor category, it said.