Thanks to Jio effect, India reaches 15th spot in 4G availability

India's 71.6% 4G availability in the 3rd quarter of 2016 jumped to 81.6% in the 1st quarter of 2017

Thanks to the Jio launch that attracted 100 million subscribers in its first six months, India has reached 15th spot in the 4G availability globally, a survey by London-based wireless coverage mapping company OpenSignal revealed on Wednesday.

According to OpenSignal's "State of LTE" report, India had 71.6 per cent 4G availability in the third quarter of 2016 which jumped to 81.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2017.

"India is one of the most dynamic and fast-changing mobile markets. The government and other stakeholders must continue to seize the immense opportunity and climb the global rankings across all parameters, to ensure high quality and consistent mobile experience for its one billion plus mobile users," said Brendan Gill, co-founder and CEO, OpenSignal, in a statement.

However, when it comes to 4G download speed, India lagged. The 4G download speeds averaged 5.1 Mbps in the country, dropping more than a megabit per second in just six months.

"These 4G download speeds are only marginally faster than the average global 3G download speed which is at 4.4 Mbps," the findings showed.

Availability levels of other operators than Jio in the Indian market still hovered around 60 per cent.

South Korea scored highest in 4G availability and second highest in 4G download speed in tests.

For its report, OpenSignal collected data from regular consumer smartphones under conditions of normal usage and covered 75 countries.

"Meanwhile, countries with new LTE networks may have limited 4G availability but, due to their light loads, can support considerably fast speeds," the report stated.