Airtel beats Reliance Jio by a huge margin in 4G speed: OpenSignal report

Clocks average speed of 11.5 Mbps versus Jio's 3.92 Mbps; Jio tops in 4G reach with 92% coverage

Bharti Airtel is the best performer among Indian mobile service providers in terms of 4G data speed, shows the first India report by IndiaOpenSignal, a provider of insights into coverage and performance of mobile operators worldwide.

The OpenSignal report, which closely looks at the dynamics of mobile data in India, taking into account the experience of 93,464 Indian smartphone users, seems to confirm an earlier report by Ookla, which had called Airtel the fastest 4G high-speed network in India ahead of the likes of Vodafone, Idea and Reliance Jio.

According to the OpenSignal report, Bharti Airtel tops the 4G LTE download speed with an average speed of 11.5 Mega-bits per seconds (Mbps). It was closely followed by Vodafone and Idea in 4G LTE internet speed test, with scores of 8.59 Mbps and 8.34 Mbps, respectively. Reliance Jio was a distant fourth with a speed of 3.92 Mbps, less than Bharti Airtel’s 3G internet speed.

4G internet download speed



In the 3G download test, too, the Bharti Airtel network topped, with a speed of 4.77 Mbps. It was closely followed by Vodafone, with a 4.30 Mbps 3G download speed in India.

3G internet download speed



In terms of reach, however, Reliance Jio appeared to be the only 4G network offering a countrywide 4G network availability. Reliance Jio enjoys a spectacular 91.57 per cent 4G network coverage in India, which is very high, considering that the company launched its services only late last year. In network coverage, Airtel came a distant fourth, while Idea and Vodafone took the second and third spots, respectively.

4G network coverage



Bharti Airtel also topped the charts in overall internet speed test of OpenSignal. The overall internet speed test that takes into account the average download speed experienced by users on 4G LTE network, 3G network and on 2G speeds.

Overall internet speed



Recently, international internet speed test platform Ookla, based on web and app platforms, had shown Airtel as the top 4G high-speed internet provider in India. The report, however, was questioned by Mukesh Ambani-backed Reliance Jio Infocomm, and the matter was even taken up by Trai.

Earlier this week, Trai had released a report suggesting Reliance Jio was the fastest 4G high-speed internet provider, while Airtel was the third-fastest.