Jio tops 5G download speed chart at 315.5Mbps, Airtel leads in 5G upload speed: Opensignal

NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio tops the 5G download speed index in India with 315.3Mbps while Airtel users on average experience 5G upload speeds of up to 23.9Mbps, according to the latest report published by analytics firm Opensignal.

“Jio is the outright winner of both the Download Speed Experience and 5G Download Speed awards, with scores of 22.5Mbps and 315.3Mbps, respectively,” said Hardik Khatri, Technical Analyst, Opensignal, in the report. In both categories, Jio wins by large margins, Khatri added.

The average overall download speeds of Jio users are 4.5Mbps (24.7%) faster than those seen by Airtel users and while Jio’s 5G download speed score is 54.1Mbps (20.7%) higher than second-placed Airtel, as per Opensignal data.

On average, Airtel users experience the fastest 5G upload speeds in the country at 23.9Mbps.

“As a result, Airtel takes home the 5G upload speed award with a 5.9Mbps lead over Jio. However, when we look at average overall upload speeds, Vodafone Idea wins the upload speed experience award with 5Mbps — just 0.3Mbps ahead of second-placed Airtel,” said Khatri.

Airtel users also observe the best quality of experience while streaming videos, playing multiplayer mobile games, and using over-the-top (OTT) voice services on mobile voice apps with 5G, Opensignal found.

The Sunil Mittal-led telco is also the “outright winner” in video and voice app experience indices, and jointly tops the games experience index alongside Vodafone Idea.

By contrast, Jio ranks ahead of Airtel and Vodafone Idea in providing the most consistent quality of experience with a score of 63%, the report mentioned.

“The operator also wins the Core Consistent Quality award with a score of 84.3%. However, Jio's lead over second-placed Airtel has slightly dipped across both categories. Jio's winning margin over Airtel has declined from 8.4 to 5.5 percentage points in Excellent Consistent Quality and from 8.8 to 6.8 percentage points in Core Consistent Quality,” it said.

To recall, Airtel became the first to launch 5G commercially, using non-standalone access (NSA) technology under the branding of ‘5G Plus’. On the other hand, Jio has taken the 5G standalone access (SA) route with ‘True 5G’ branding, and uses the 700 MHz band (low-band spectrum) that no other telco currently has in the country.

As of March 2023, Jio claims to have rolled out 5G in 406 cities. Meanwhile, rival Airtel argues it is ahead in the race with a 5G footprint of 500 cities. However, by contrast, India's third largest operator Vodafone Idea has not formally announced its 5G launch date, while state-owned BSNL is strengthening its 4G network and aiming to launch 5G by 2024.

Opensignal's analysis based on the data collected during the period of December 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023.

Ending months of uncertainty after its rival Airtel and Reliance Jio paced up 5G coverage, Vodafone Idea has said it would roll out 5G network soon.

"5G roll out will begin soon,” Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla group and one of the shareholders of Vodafone Idea, has told CNBC-TV18 recently.