Indian 5G speeds revealed! Guess who dominates 5G mobile data speeds

Indian 5G speeds in early test networks revealed. Much faster speeds than 4G LTE networks but yet to reach full speeds.

Jio 5G services are promising faster download speeds in test networks. (PTI)

5G is here in India and already, the top mobile carriers in India are testing their 5G networks as part of a public beta testing. Airtel has already rolled out its 5G services in select cities while Jio is conducting speed trials of its 5G services in a few cities. Both operators are promising speeds Gbps but in the initial stages, the speeds are far lower than anticipated. Based on research by Ookla conducted across 5G test networks from these operators, we have a fair idea of what speeds we will be expecting once 5G is available widely.

The report talks about the median 5G speeds that both of these operators can sustain right now. With Jio and Airtel being the only operator to offer 5G, it is Reliance Jio who dominates with massive boosts in overall speeds across most of the cities. Jio's median and mean download speeds are much higher than that of Airtel's network.

5G speeds of test networks revealed

“We've already seen a wide range of 5G download speeds: from low double-digit (16.27 Mbps) to a mindblowing 809.94 Mbps, which points to the fact that the operators are still recalibrating their networks. We expect these speeds to be more stable moving forward as these networks will enter the commercial stage,” says the report.

The median 5G download speeds have been much higher in Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata for Jio, whereas Airtel 5G had a narrow lead in Varanasi. Note that Jio is using a Standalone 5G network, which means it isn't relying on the older 4G LTE services to provide coverage. Airtel, on the other hand, has a non-standalone 5G network and hence, the speeds are much lower. Both Airtel and Jio are sticking to sub-6 5G in India. The mmWave 5G is the one promising speeds in higher Gbps.

As the network coverage improves, the 5G speeds are expected to improve over the coming months. Additionally, many smartphone manufacturers are expected to release support for 5G networks over the coming months. Apple is expected to enable 5G reception on its iPhone 12 and newer models by December 2022, and the same is expected of Google's 5G Pixel devices. Several devices from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, Oppo and Vivo already support 5G services.