• Jio Increase its 4G Availability, Airtel Pulls Ahead in Download Speed Experience
Opensignal, a mobile analytics firm, has released its latest Mobile Network Experience report for India. According to the report, Jio continues to increase its 4G Availability, with the highest national score ever recorded. Jio’s score of 4G availability rose to 97.5%, highest at a country level and Airtel recorded the greatest growth in 4G availability as its score jumped by over 10 percentage points to cross 85%.
The report examines 90 days – from December 01, 2018 to take a deep dive into the mobile experience on the networks of India’s key five operators Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Jio and Vodafone, both at a national level and across all 22 of the country’s telecoms circle
The key findings of the report are :
India’s 4G Availability just keeps rising
Jio continues to astound, growing its 4G Availability to 97.5% – the highest national recorded by Opensignal. But Airtel showed the greatest growth in this category, as its average score jumped by over 10 percentage points to pass 85%.
Airtel pulls ahead in Download Speed Experience
Airtel won the Download Speed Experience award, increasing its score by more than a megabit since our last report and widening the gap with its rivals. But all five of India’s main national operators showed fair improvement in their scores.
Airtel puts in a sprint to win Video Experience
Airtel again became a winner in the Video Experience analysis, as its score jumped by over 5 points to pull ahead of the pack. India’s video experience is improving, as its top four operators now have scores in a fair category.
Big improvements but wide variations in latency
Jio won the Latency Experience award, but there were also some impressive improvements from most operators across the latency metrics. However, the Latency Experience was the category where Opensignal saw some of the largest variations in scores – particularly in the regions – reflecting the challenges India’s operators continue to face in providing a consistent mobile experience.
India looking forward to 5G debut in 2020
India’s regulator is planning to auction 5G spectrum this year, and many operators are planning commercial launches in 2020. But the huge investment needed to achieve a nationwide rollout and the high cost of 5G devices mean it will be several years before the majority of Indians feel the benefits of the next generation of mobile technology.
