According to Ookla® data, mobile download speeds have increased significantly in India over the past year. In fact, India rose 72 places in the Speedtest Global Index™ in his one year. His 5G launch in India contributed significantly to the country’s rise in the rankings.
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- India was ranked 47th as of August 2023. Since the introduction of 5G, the country’s speed performance has improved 3.59x, with median download speeds increasing from 13.87 Mbps in September 2022 to 50.21 Mbps in August 2023. This improvement helped India move up 72 places in the Speedtest Global Index. , from 119th to 47th.
- 5G benefits extend to all communications industries. The introduction of 5G has improved the overall user experience across all telecommunications industries thanks to the investments made by carriers in their backhaul infrastructure. The introduction of 5G technology by carriers such as Jio and Airtel has led to a significant increase in 5G subscribers, and carriers still have ambitious rollout plans, with numerous 5G bases across the country. We are deploying stations.
- It’s not just about speed. 5G not only brought faster speeds, but also higher customer satisfaction, as shown by Net Promoter Score (NPS). This shows that India’s 5G users consistently rate network operators more positively compared to their 4G users. Additionally, 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services have been introduced to provide broadband connectivity to areas where fiber installation is costly or impractical.
India rises 72 places in Speedtests mobile rankings thanks to 5G rollout
According to Speedtest Intelligence® data, median download speeds across India will increase by 259% compared to before 5G launch, from 13.87 Mbps in September 2022 to 50.21 Mbps in August 2023. It rose to As a result, India’s position in the Speedtest Global Index has improved. ™ improved 72 places from 119th From September 2022 to 47th This puts India ahead of neighboring countries Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan as well as places like Mexico (90th), Turkey (68th), UK (62nd) and Japan (58th). It also exceeds the G20 countries. , Brazil (50th) and South Africa (48th).
Improving mobile performance across the telecom industry
Mobile users in India are among the most data-intensive consumers in the world. However, India’s 4G network has not been able to meet consumer expectations mainly due to network congestion caused by population density, lack of mobile infrastructure, backhaul and spectrum constraints. After the 5G spectrum auction, the carrier was able to address some of these issues and reduce congestion on his 4G network by offloading 4G traffic to his 5G network. This strategy has already proven successful, as his 25%-35% of traffic is already crowded. Offloaded from 4G to 5G.
According to Speedtest data, median download speeds in India have improved significantly, increasing by 3.59 times since the launch of 5G in the country. For example, back in October 2022, median download speeds in India ranged from 10.37 Mbps in the Northeast to 21.49 Mbps in Jammu and Kashmir. However, by August 2023, the range of median download speeds had expanded significantly, with each circle clocking speeds of 28 Mbps or higher. The Northeast recorded a median download speed of 28.02 Mbps, while Jammu and Kashmir recorded the highest speed of 150.95 Mbps.
In August 2023, Jammu and Kashmir, India’s northernmost state, emerged as the top state with a median mobile download speed of 150.96 Mbps, ahead of Bihar (73.00 Mbps) and Kolkata (66.47 Mbps). Jammu and Kashmir was one of the last states to launch a mobile network in 2003, with mobile network services occasionally disrupted due to security concerns and internet shutdowns. However, the local administration is focusing on infrastructure development in various tourist destinations, especially in Kashmir.
Rapid 5G deployment
Jio and Airtel are deploying 5G technology from October 2022 after acquiring the 5G spectrum licenses. Although initially focused on launching in major cities, the coverage has expanded significantly and the performance of his 5G has improved across the telecommunications industry. In October 2022, he saw a noticeable difference in the performance of his 5G network on 5G-enabled devices. As the network is under development, median download speeds ranged from 512.57 Mbps in Gujarat to 19.23 Mbps in western Uttar Pradesh. In fact, nine telecom zones in Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata, Northeast, Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, Punjab, Kerala, and Western Uttar Pradesh had faster 5G download speeds as the network was in its initial testing phase. The median was less than 100 Mbps. However, by August 2023, the median 5G download speed will exceed 240 Mbps across all coverage areas, with Kolkata leading the way with a median download speed of 385.50 Mbps.
As India continues to roll out 5G, the number of subscribers continues to grow. Reliance Jio announced that he has over 50 million customers and Bharti Airtel claimed in June that he has over 10 million 5G customers.
Jio also has ambitious deployment targets, aiming to deploy nearly 1 million base stations by December 2023 to address the growing data consumption on its network. According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), as of August 28, 2023, the number of 5G base stations (BTS) in the country was 338,572, a significant increase from 53,590 reported at the beginning of the year. India’s three most populous states, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, account for 25% of the total wireless subscribers in the country and also account for 25% share of 5G BTS.
5G speeds in India are particularly good when compared to 4G speeds. For example, as of August 2023, 5G median download speeds were 2,003% faster than 4G, with 5G median download speeds of 316.24 Mbps compared to 4G’s 14.97 Mbps. The speed improvements were largely driven by carriers investing in fiber technology to improve backhaul.
5G will positively impact Net Promoter Score
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a tool that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction. NPS is a key performance indicator for customer experience that categorizes users into detractors (users with a score of 0-6), passive users (users with a score of 7-8), and promoters (scores of 9-10). represents the percentage of people. minus the percentage of detractors. Displayed in the range -100 to 100.
In our recent article, we found that 5G users, on average, rate network operators with universally higher NPS scores than 4G LTE users. The same goes for India, where his 5G score in Q2 2023 was 15.80, while 4G was -29.65. 5G NPS consistently outperforms his 4G/LTE in most coverage regions except the Northeast.
Ookla understands real consumer experiences
Median 5G performance provides an understanding of the middle ground of the user experience on a 5G network, but it does not paint a complete picture. Speedtest® is designed to fully saturate your connection and is uniquely able to accurately measure the maximum speed available. This is especially important in the case of his 5G connections, which can deliver lightning-fast speeds, such as those observed in India. Using Speedtest data, we can see that Indian carriers are already achieving maximum download speeds of over 1.7 Gbps. Speedtest measures download speeds from multiple servers simultaneously to ensure your connection is fully utilized.
The early days of 5G FWA
Additionally, carriers have introduced 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services to complement their existing 5G services. FWA offers an excellent opportunity to cover areas where it would be too costly to install fiber optics and is an alternative to fixed networks. 5G FWA presents an opportunity for India as it uses 5G as a last mile technology to provide broadband connectivity.
5G FWA has already seen great success in the United States, South Africa, and the Philippines. Bharti Airtel launched ‘Airtel Xstream AirFiber’ in Delhi and Mumbai in August 2023, expanding its services beyond its fiber footprint. Their plans start at 799 rupees ($9.64) per month and offer download speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Jio also launched ‘JioAirFiber’ in September, which was initially available in eight cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. AirFiber and AirFiber Max offer several plan options with download speeds ranging from 30 Mbps to 1 Gbps. Pricing starts from 599 INR ($7.22) per month and goes up to 3,999 INR ($48.23).
We will continue to monitor 5G performance in India to see how carriers expand their networks and evaluate real-world performance as more consumers connect 5G devices and use 5G FWA. I will continue to do so. For more information, subscribe to Ookla Research™ and be the first to read our analysis.
