India climbed 49 places on the Ookla Speedtest Global Index, jumping from the 118th position in September 2022 to the 69th position in January 2023.
Data shows improvement in LTE speeds for both Jio and Airtel since the launch of 5G services, with median download speeds across India increasing by 115% from 13.87 Mbps in September 2022 to 29.85 Mbps in January 2023, Ookla said in a release.
This puts the country ahead of some of the G20 nations, like Mexico, Russia, Argentina, including neighbours like Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.
In terms of network providers, Jio experienced a top median 5G download speed of 506.25 Mbps in Kolkata, while Airtel of 268.89 Mbps in Delhi.
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Availability for 5G also increased 55-fold, with Airtel and Jio having ambitious targets in terms of 5G network rollout. 5G is reaching 8.0% for Airtel and 5.1% across 5G-capable devices.
Comparing the performance of Jio and Airtel, the report found that in January 2023, the early adopters of Jio’s 5G experienced speeds ranging from 246.49 Mbps median download speed in Himachal Pradesh to 506.25 Mbps in Kolkata while the Airtel’s 5G early adopters experienced speeds ranging from a 78.13 Mbps median download speed in Kolkata to 268.89 Mbps in Delhi.
The report also inferred the churn pattern of Speedtest users from January to December 2022, which shows that Vi India has been losing users throughout 2022 and following the 5G launch disconnections increased.
With the 5G rollout in October 2022, there has also been an increase in 4G LTE speeds for both Airtel and Jio with median 4G LTE speeds standing at 13.30 Mbps.
