Smartphone users in Tier 1 experienced better download speeds than Tier 2, 3 during lockdown: Opensignal

Opensignal’s latest report highlights the download speed experiences smartphone users faced in India during the lockdown period. The initial phases of the lockdown saw a negative impact on download speeds which was later improved as restrictions were lifted.

According to Opensignal’s report, users in Tier 2 cities faced more issues with download speeds than those in Tier 1. This occurred during the early parts of the lockdown which began in late March. It’s quite understandable since everyone had to stay indoors and internet consumption naturally spiked causing load on bandwidth.

More specifically, the change started during the third week of March when the Janta Curfew took place. Tier 1 users saw download speeds decrease by 16%, while mobile users in Tier 3 and Tier 2 witnessed drops by 23% and 25% respectively. Opensignal added that this trend continued till the second week of April. Tier 2 cities such as Solapur, Ludhiana, Nashik, Surat and Ahmedabad were the most affected as download speeds dropped by more than 35%.

As the lockdown restrictions slowly lessened, download speeds also improved especially for users in Tier 1 cities. During the second phase of the lockdown between April 13 and May 3, download speeds gradually increased. The third phase followed with download speeds going back to normal like it was during pre-lockdown days.

The report points out how there were shifts even among cities in Tier 1. For example, Bangalore and Chennai didn’t face any dramatic changes in download speeds but Pune however saw a decline of 6.9%-12.55. But as the second phase of lockdown started, download speeds were mostly back to normal for users in these cities.

Opensignal also revealed some of the factors that caused the drop in speeds. The main cause was the removal of data limits and cheaper data vouchers introduced by telcos. There was a big surge in work from home plans and 4G vouchers with extra data during this time. Another reason was the behaviour of data usage among users. There was a change in this as user activity was happening during off hours which led to drop in average speeds in non-peak hours and then overall speeds.