Jio’s standalone 5G network quality has degraded between the second quarter of 2023 and the Q2 of 2024, according to Ookla’s speed test results. This comes even as Jio launched its standalone 5G network nearly two years ago, completing the pan-India rollout exactly a year ago. 

According to Ookla’s report, India’s standalone 5G performance went from a median speed of 436 bps at the end of May 2023 to the current median of 298.22 bps reported in May 2024. The dip is primarily driven by an increased user base and network traffic. “ When Jio launched 5G it was a virgin network with barely any users, so the speeds were higher than what it is now. Therefore it may not be prudent to compare last year’s speed to now when Jio has 130 million 5G users,” said an industry expert.

Being the only telecom operator with a sub-GHz 5G spectrum, Jio is the only telecom operator offering standalone 5G in India. Vodafone Idea has yet to commence its 5G network rollout, while Airtel has been offering 5G on a non-standalone network. Airtel announced on Monday that it would be refarming the 4G spectrum in the mid-band for 5G purposes, with which it will be ready to offer standalone 5G in the future.

However, the Ookla report noted that India, the US, and Southeast Asia are at the forefront of adopting 5G standalone. “T-Mobile and SK Telekom were among the first to launch 5G SA in 2020, while Chinese operators and Jio in India lead in terms of active 5G SA users. Europe somewhat lags, with operators still hesitant due to the relatively low ROI on existing 5G investments and unclear business cases for 5G SA. However, Europe has the highest number of operators planning to launch it,” Ookla stated.

Jio is one of the few telecom operators in the globe who adopted a standalone network from the outset after aggressively bidding for the pricey 700MHz spectrum in the inaugural 5G auctions. Airtel and likely Vodafone Idea are also following the more standard global strategy of starting with a non-standalone 5G network before upgrading to a standalone one. Most existing 5G deployments use the non-standalone (NSA) model, which uses the 4G core network. This model is faster to roll out, requires less investment, and maximizes existing network assets. Unlike 5G NSA, 5G SA uses a dedicated 5G core network, unlocking the full capabilities of 5G with better speed, latency, support for large devices, and more agile service creation. It also enables new features such as network slicing, which allows an operator to dedicate a network segment to specific customers or use cases. 

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