According to data from Speedtest Intelligence by Ookla, 5G download speeds have reached 500 Mbps on test networks in India. Reliance Jio led with a speed of 598.58 Mbps compared to Bharti Airtel’s speed of 197.98 Mbps in Delhi since June 2022.
Meanwhile, in Kolkata, operators’ median download speeds varied the most since June 2022. Airtel’s median download speed was 33.83 Mbps while Jio had a much faster median download speed of 482.02 Mbps. In Mumbai, Airtel reached 271.07 Mbps median download speed compared to Jio’s 515.38 Mbps median download since June 2022. Lastly, in Varanasi, Jio and Airtel achieved closer parity, with Airtel achieving a 5G median download speed of 516.57 Mbps to Jio’s 485.22 Mbps median download speed since June 2022.
According to the Speedtest Global Index by Ookla, India ranked 117th in the world for mobile download speed at 13.52 Mbps in August 2022. These new 5G results show that 5G speeds are far superior to India’s existing network.
Further, Speedtest Intelligence data reveals that Jio’s 5G performance differs depending on the spectrum band it uses. Jio’s 5G network using the C-band results in performance ranging between 606.53 Mbps and 875.26 Mbps median download speed. While 5G networks using the lower 700 MHz frequency band give speeds lower than 100 Mbps median download speed, ranging between 78.69 Mbps and 95.13 Mbps. Airtel, on the other hand, achieved speeds from 365.48 Mbps to 716.85 Mbps deploying 5G utilising only its C-band spectrum holding.
