Vi (formerly known as Vodafone Idea) has emerged as the fastest mobile network in India as far as the 4G speeds in the third quarter of this year. Vi offered a download speed of 13.74Mbps and an upload speed of 6.19Mbps to its subscribers in India, which was the highest in the third quarter of 2020. It was followed by Bharti Airtel on the second spot and Reliance Jio on the third spot, according to a report by Ookla. The report also mentioned that GIGAnet from Vi has been verified as the fastest 4G network, with the highest download and upload speeds in some of the top states.

While Vodafone Idea offered the fastest 4G mobile data service in the country, it was Jio that took the title for offering the highest 4G availability in the country. Jio had the highest 4G Availability among top providers in India at 99.7%. Bharti Airtel followed Jio closely with 4G available in 98.7% of tested locations. Vi India was third at 91.1%, the report noted.

Hyderabad had the highest mobile network speed in India, followed by Mumbai. Visakhapatnam stood third and New Delhi, on the other hand, stood in the sixth spot.

Despite leading on the 4G availability front, India trailed Pakistan on the part of average download speeds over mobile networks in the third quarter, as per Ookla. Pakistan had 39.7 percent faster download speeds over India, whereas Bangladesh was third for download speed and second for upload speed. This means that the average upload speed in India was even lower than what was provided in Bangladesh — at a rate of 4.18Mbps.

Nevertheless, average download speeds over mobile networks improved in India between the third quarter last and this year. Pakistan, however, saw an increase of 24.1 percent in its download speeds during the same period, according to the report.

“Upload speeds remained mostly flat across South Asia’s largest countries, with only Pakistan showing a slight improvement year over year,” Ookla said.

India ranked 131st position on Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index for mobile Internet speeds in the month of September with an average mobile download speed of 12.07Mbps. The country’s neighbours were above it on the list, with China on the second spot, Sri Lanka on the 102nd position, and even Pakistan capturing the 116th rank as well as Nepal holding the 117th position.

Hyderabad had the fastest average mobile download speed in the third quarter, followed by Mumbai
Photo Credit: Ookla

On the basis of the data acquired from the Speedtest app on Android, Ookla mentioned that India led 4G availability among the largest South Asian countries during the third quarter with 94.7 percent of tested locations showing 4G available. Bangladesh and Pakistan followed India with a 4G availability rate of 78.6 and 72.9 percent, respectively.

India’s growth is largely contributed by Jio that led 4G availability at 99.7 percent during the third quarter. Airtel followed with 4G available in 98.7 percent of tested locations during the same period, while Vi India came third at 91.1 percent.

In terms of region-wise performance, the Ookla report stated that mobile download speeds vary among the largest cities in India during the third quarter. Hyderabad led that race with an average download speed over mobile networks at 14.35 percent, followed closely by Mumbai at 13.55Mbps and Visakhapatnam at 13.40Mbps. Delhi came sixth in the list of Indian cities offering top download speeds, with an average speed of 13.04Mbps.