Bharti Airtel topped the charts on 3G and 4G download speed, bettering rival Reliance Jio Infocomm, while the latter emerged as the best 4G service provider in the country.

“Airtel held onto our 3G and 4G speed awards.... It wrested our overall speed award away from RJio, locking down the top spot in all three of our speed categories. RJio, however, remained the closest contender in overall speed due to its high level of 4G access,” London-based OpenSignal, a company that specialises in wireless coverage mapping, said in a report.

During the tests, RJio delivered everyday download speeds of 5.1 Mbps, compared with Airtel’s 6 Mbps. RJio is “still far ahead” of key rivals in 4G availability, beating all three by at least 27 percentage points.

The tests were conducted between December 2017 and February 2018, and based on a 736,571-devices test.

“Our testers were able to find an LTE signal on RJio’s network 96.4 per cent of the time in our latest test period, up from 95.6 per cent in our October report,” it said.

“Such a score is exceptional, reflecting RJio’s commitment to build out a 4G-only network without 3G mobile data services to fall back on. What’s more, RJio’s impressive LTE reach is only improving, though incrementally. In our last India report in October, we measured RJio's 4G availability at 95.6 per cent,” it added.

While Airtel dominated in 4G speed nationally, Idea Cellular bested its larger competitor in both west and east Uttar Pradesh, while Vodafone India topped 4G speeds in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Both the operators were tied for first in LTE speed in several other regions such as Bihar, Kerala, Kolkata and West Bengal.

In its 18-circle 4G analysis, OpenSignal found several operators making their mark in particular States and regions with Airtel topping 4G speeds in 10 of the 18 circles the firm analysed.

The report, which stated that Indian operators were “hearing the call of 4G revolution”, had been recording substantial improvements in 4G availability in India during the last six months. This was because as operators have made access to LTE signals a new priority.

Related Topics