5G download speeds of Airtel, Jio drop sharply two years after launch due to network congestion: Report

New Delhi: Two years after the launch of 5G services in India, downloads speeds of both Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have declined significantly, primarily due to network congestion from faster adoption and increased data consumption, a report by Opensignal has said.

As per the report, after two years, India's 5G availability though is among the highest regionally, with Reliance Jio at the forefront — Jio users spend two-thirds of their time connected to an active 5G signal.

In terms of mobile experience, while Airtel has emerged as the leader in India for 5G, on all counts - 5G experience, including 5G video, 5G live video and 5G games experience, Jio remains the sole top telco in the coverage category, including availability, 5G availability and coverage experience.


Jio were connected to a 5G network 66.7% of the time, close to three times greater than those with Airtel.
At around 240 Mbps, Airtel’s 5G download speed is 6.6% faster than Reliance Jio. Similarly, Airtel also has a higher 5G upload speed award witu 23 Mbps, around 83% faster than Jio.

“However, both Airtel’s and Jio’s average 5G download speeds have declined significantly, primarily due to network congestion resulting from faster 5G adoption and increased data consumption per 5G subscriber,” Opensignal said.

The report captured data of four operators -Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) –over a period of 90 days from June 1, 2024 to August 29, 2024 to examine the network experience.

India's 5G rollout has been spearheaded by Jio and Airtel, as Vi has yet to launch commercial 5G services.

As per Opensignal, spectrum management and usage play a key role in shaping users’ 5G experiences. “Our recent analysis found that 16% of 5G connections in India use low-band (700MHz) spectrum, which offers extensive coverage but limits speed. The rest use the upper mid-band 3.5GHz spectrum,” it said.