Massive setback for Jio! Airtel edges past Mukesh Ambani led telco in download speeds: Report

In an unprecedented lead against Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel emerged as the leader in providing the fastest download speed during the June-August quarter.

The second spot for providing better 4G services in the country was bagged by Airtel. (Image: AFP)

New Delhi: In an unprecedented lead against Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel emerged as the leader in providing the fastest download speed during the June-August quarter. A recent report by wireless coverage mapping firm Open Signal stated that the average download speed of Airtel was 7.53 Mbps (megabits per second), followed by Jio in the second place with 5.47 Mbps. “Airtel dominated our Download Speed Experience regional awards, coming top in 16 circles and drawing (equal) in two others,” the report added further. However, the report also highlighted that the recent entrant in the Indian telecom landscape was the best in terms of providing 4G network. Titled as ‘Mobile Network Experience Report India’, the Open Signal report also stated that Jio has managed to achieve an availability score of over 95 per cent in all of India's regions. “Jio continues to grow from 96.4 per cent to 96.7 per cent in our analysis, particularly remarkable in a relatively new LTE market like India,” it noted. The second spot for providing better 4G services in the country was bagged by Airtel with a score of 73.99 per cent. After analysing the uploading speed, the report suggests that Idea topped among the service providers with an average speed of 2.88 Mbps, followed by Vodafone with 2.31 Mbps. Reliance Jio also topped on latency experience at 72.20 per cent, the least among the operators, followed by Vodafone which recorded 80.42 per cent latency during July-August quarter. Network latency is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. Despite the merger, Vodafone and Idea were treated as two separate entities in the report. This was because the two telecom companies were operating individually at the time when survey was conducted. “As the price war begins to subside in this maturing market, India’s operators should have more breathing space to focus on other ways to differentiate such as service quality and bundling, as opposed to a race to the bottom on price,” the report said. The report was made after conducting a survey that analysed over 10.5 billion measurements from 1.7 million devices over 90 days through August.