Airtel Offers Faster 4G Download Speeds Than Reliance Jio in Delhi-NCR Region: TRAI

In a new report by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), it has been discovered that Airtel offers the fastest 4G download speeds in Delhi, not Reliance Jio - the telecom operator that spearheaded the 4G revolution in the country. Jio falls in the second place, according to the Independent Drive Test (IDT) report of Delhi service area including Ghaziabad, Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad. This test was conducted between February 20 and March 16, covering a drive test route of 2300km and data tests were conducted on 23 hotspots, spread across the entire service area.

According to the report, Airtel offers 4G Internet download speeds of 8.9Mbps, and Reliance Jio is a little behind with 7.3Mbps speeds in the Delhi-NCR region. Vodafone came in third with 4.9Mbps 4G downloads speeds. 4G upload speeds are the highest on Vodafone with 5.8Mbps, followed by Jio at 2.1Mbps, and Airtel comes in third with 2.0Mbps upload speeds on 4G connectivity.

The report further reveals that websites load the fastest on Airtel in Delhi-NCR region at 6.7 seconds (average time taken to load a tested webpage). Vodafone reportedly has a web browsing delay of 9 seconds while Jio is at 7.2 seconds. Even video streaming delay is the least on Airtel at 1.7 seconds, while Jio and Vodafone both have a video streaming delay of 2.6 and 2.7 seconds respectively.

Airtel topped 2G download speeds in Delhi as well, but 3G download speeds were seen high on MTNL, reports TRAI. MTNL tops the 3G list with 3.7Mbps download speeds, followed by Airtel (3.3Mbps), Vodafone (2.3Mbps), and Idea Cellular (2Mbps). The report also suggests that the Delhi-NCR region saw only 2 percent drop call rate during the test period, except MTNL and Aircel, which saw higher call drop rates. In fact, MTNL had a drop call rate of as much as 19.5 percent on 2G network, while Aircel had a drop call rate of 5.7 percent. On the 3G network as well, MTNL had the highest drop call rate of 8.3 percent.

Is the Reliance Jio effect spreading to postpaid connections in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.