5G download speeds in India topped 500 Mbps on test networks: Ookla

Jio fared better than Airtel with a speed of 598.58 Mbps compared to 197.98 Mbps in Delhi. 5G speeds in India might fall drastically when the network is widely available.

According to the most recent data from internet testing company, Ookla, 5G download speeds in India have topped 500 Mbps on the test networks, with Jio dominating with a speed of 598.58 Mbps in comparison to Airtel's 197.98 Mbps in New Delhi. Ookla recorded the 5G download speeds in four metros since June 2022, including Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Varanasi. Airtel was behind Jio even in Mumbai with download speeds of 271.07Mbps while the latter had a faster speed at 515.38Mbps.

According to Ookla's data, telecom providers tested their networks ahead of the launch on October 1 and 5G download speeds ranged from 16.27 Mbps to 809.94 Mbps, indicating that telcos are still fine-tuning their networks.

However, the two telecom networks’ speeds varied the most in Kolkata. Airtel’s median download speed was 33.83Mbps while Jio had a much faster median download speed at 482.02 Mbps. “We expect these speeds to be more stable moving forward as these networks will enter the commercial stage,” said Sylwia Kechiche, Principal Industry Analyst, Enterprise at Ookla.

In Varanasi, Jio and Airtel have achieved closed margins. Airtel has achieved a 5G download speed of 516.57Mbps while has managed a 485.22Mbps download speed since June 2022. “These new 5G results show that 5G speeds are far superior to India’s existing network,” said Kechiche.

Ookla’s analysis showed that Jio’s 5G performance depends on the spectrum band it uses. The C-band (n=78) results in performance ranging between 606.53Mbps and 875.26Mbps download speed. While 5G networks using the lower 700MHz frequency band (n=28), gives lower than 100Mbps download speeds, ranging between 78.69Mbps and 95.13Mbps. Airtel has achieved speeds from 365.48Mbps to 716.85Mbps deploying 5G utilising only its C-band spectrum holding, as per Ookla.

Ookla claims that Jio’s network saw the largest increase in 5G-capable devices (67.4 percent), followed by Airtel (61.6 percent), and Vodafone Idea (56 percent) over the last year.