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Once again, our users connected to Airtel’s network enjoyed the best Experience in India. Airtel continues to place firmly in the Good category (55-65 on a 0-100 scale) with a score of 60.3 points — a growth of 2.8 points since our last report — but Vi is snapping on its heels. Our Vi users reported the greatest improvement of six points, from 54.2 points to 60.1 points moving Vi into the Good category. Meanwhile, Jio (53.3) and BSNL (38.6) have continued to place in the Fair and Poor categories, respectively. Today, consumption of short videos online on channels like YouTube, social media, and other OTT apps contributes to more than 50% of the mobile data traffic in India, which means that Video Experience is a critical aspect of users’ mobile network experience.
Airtel continues to win in India for multiplayer mobile Games Experience. Airtel’s score of 58.5 points (out of 100) is half a point higher than that of Vi, while Jio and BSNL were further away with 48.1 and 36.9 points, respectively. Opensignal’s Games Experience quantifies the experience of real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. It represents the experience of popular genres of mobile games such as battle royale games like COD mobile or Garena FreeFire and MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) titles like Arena of Valor.
Airtel once again leads in our measure of the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — on mobile apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger. The operator won our Voice App Experience award with a score of 77.8 points, while Vi was close behind with 76.8 points. Our Vi and Airtel users reported upswings of 2.4 points and 2.3 points, respectively, and placed in the Acceptable Category (74-80). Our users on Jio's network saw a 1.3 points improvement which pushed its rating up from Poor to Acceptable. This means our Indian users on three out of four networks perceived an Acceptable Voice App Experience. But BSNL’s score of 69.7 continues to place in the Poor rating category, despite an increase of 3.6 points.
Vi now wins both Opensignal’s mobile speed awards in India. Since our last report, our users on Vi recorded the largest increase of 0.9 Mbps in their average upload speeds and a boost of 1.8 Mbps in their average download speeds, but users connecting with other operators saw relatively lower improvements — 0.1-0.7 Mbps across both metrics. As a result of this, Vi won both our Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience award with scores of 11.9 Mbps and 4.5 Mbps, respectively.
Jio has now surpassed the 99% 4G Availability milestone with a 0.5 percentage points increase since Opensignal’s last report. At the same time, Airtel’s score rose by 1.8 percentage points to 97.4%. These increases are noteworthy because both operators have limited room to improve in the proportion of time 4G smartphone users spend connected to 4G as they approach 100% so even small increases are impressive. However, Vi and BSNL’s scores increased significantly by 5.1 and 3.5 percentage points to 89.2% and 61.1%, respectively. Jio also wins our 4G Coverage Experience award with a score of 9.4 (on a 10-point scale).
The dynamics in the Indian cellular markets have changed dramatically, since 2019, when three leading operators decided to hike prices, signaling a truce to the price wars. Recently Opensignal found that as price differentiation reduces in India, mobile network experience remains a key indicator of smartphone users switching mobile operator.
Our latest look at the Indian mobile network experience shows a highly competitive landscape, with operators striving to offer the best experience to their users in order to differentiate their services. In this report, our users across all four networks — Airtel, BSNL, Jio and Vi — reported improvements on the majority of metrics.
As a result of these changes, we saw our awards spread across three leading mobile networks — Airtel, Jio and Vi. Airtel won the largest share of awards, scooping up all three awards for our experiential metrics — Video Experience, Voice App Experience and Games Experience. Vi won awards for both Opensignal’s speed categories holding on to the Upload Speed Experience award and gaining a the Download Speed Experience award. Jio, as usual, won the 4G Availability and 4G Coverage Experience awards. However, our users experienced the largest improvements when connected to Vi’s network, which is likely due to Vi’s noteworthy 5.1 percentage points improvement in 4G Availability — which pulls up the overall scores for Vi as our Vi users are spending more time connected to higher quality 4G services rather than older and less efficient 3G technology.
India’s mobile market is changing for other reasons as well. The country’s three leading service providers — Airtel, Jio and Vi — recently acquired 4G spectrum in the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands worth a combined $10.6 billion; Jio acquired the largest amount of spectrum (488.35 MHz), followed by Airtel’s 355.45 MHz purchase, while Vi bought spectrum in only five circles. As a result of which Airtel now holds the largest spectrum holding (2,107 MHz) while Jio and Vi are almost neck and neck with total spectrum holding of 1717 MHz and 1768 MHz, respectively. In the future, as operators will make use of the newly acquired spectrum to add capacity and coverage, it will be interesting to see how the competition shapes up in India as existing networks will play a key role in the smooth transition to next-generation 5G networks.
In this report, we have compared the experience of our users on the country’s four main operators — Airtel, BSNL, Jio and Vi — for a period of 90 days ending January 29, 2021, to see how they fared and delved deeper into 21 of India's key telecom circles, comparing the experience users received on these four operators.
| Mobile Experience Awards India | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
March 2021,
India Report
|
A
Airtel
|
B
BSNL
|
J
Jio
|
V
Vi
|
Video Experience
| ||||
Games Experience
| ||||
Voice App Experience
| ||||
Download Speed Experience
| ||||
Upload Speed Experience
| ||||
4G Availability
| ||||
4G Coverage Experience
| ||||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
March 2021,
India
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
A
Airtel
|
|
Games Experience
|
A
Airtel
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
A
Airtel
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
V
Vi
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
V
Vi
|
|
4G Availability
|
J
Jio
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
J
Jio
|
Airtel wins Opensignal’s Video Experience award for the fifth time in a row; this means our Indian smartphone users continued to enjoy the best quality of mobile video streaming when connected to Airtel’s network. Airtel's overall score this time is 60.3 points on a 0-100 scale, which placed it in the Good Video Experience category (55-65). Vi also placed in this category with a score of 60.1 points — a significant improvement of six points since our last report.
The overall Video Experience in India is improving: our Airtel users reported an improvement of 2.8 points, while our user connected with BSNL reported an increase of 4.2 points. Jio’s score improved by just one point. However, BSNL (38.6) and Jio (53.3) continue to remain in the Poor and Fair categories, respectively.
|
Video Experience
Additional Metrics |
A
Airtel
|
B
BSNL
|
J
Jio
|
V
Vi
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | ||||
|
4G Video Experience
| 60.4 (± 0.05) | 44.0 (± 0.63) | 53.3 (± 0.04) | 62.3 (± 0.07) |
|
3G Video Experience
| 39.8 (± 1.76) | 36.9 (± 0.35) | — | 38.7 (± 0.38) |
| 4G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
A
Airtel
|
60 (± 0.05) |
|
B
BSNL
|
44 (± 0.63) |
|
J
Jio
|
53 (± 0.04) |
|
V
Vi
|
62 (± 0.07) |
| 3G Video Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
A
Airtel
|
40 (± 1.76) |
|
B
BSNL
|
37 (± 0.35) |
|
J
Jio
|
— |
|
V
Vi
|
39 (± 0.38) |
Breaking down the Video Experience by network technology type, our 4G Video Experience ratings mirrored our overall national ratings, except that BSNL placed in the Fair category. However, 3G Video Experience remains Poor across all four networks.
Opensignal’s Video Experience quantifies video streaming quality by measuring real-world video streams using dedicated video streaming tests to reflect users’ true experience over an operator’s mobile network. The calculation takes picture quality, video loading time and stall rate into account and combines these measurements using an ITU-based approach to reflect the perceived video experience as reported by real people. A Good rating indicates that users enjoyed an acceptable experience when streaming mobile video at lower resolutions, but loading times may have been slow and stalling may have occurred, especially at higher resolutions.
As we descend to lower ratings, loading times lengthen, and users encounter more stops and stutters in video streams, most notably at higher resolutions. A Poor Video Experience indicates prolonged loading times, and frequent stalling is common.
Airtel won our Games Experience award outright with a score of 58.5 points, (on a 100-point scale), while Vi was close behind with 58 points. This means our Airtel users saw the best experience while playing multiplayer mobile games in India. But the scores reported by our Jio (48.1) and BSNL (36.9) users were significantly lower than those of users connecting on Airtel and Vi’s networks. Lower scores mean users’ experience becomes less enjoyable, marred with increased delays and lack of controllability in gameplay.
|
Games Experience
Additional Metrics |
A
Airtel
|
B
BSNL
|
J
Jio
|
V
Vi
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | ||||
|
4G Games Experience
| 58.6 (± 0.06) | 40.7 (± 0.27) | 48.1 (± 0.05) | 61.5 (± 0.08) |
|
3G Games Experience
| 36.2 (± 0.30) | 36.2 (± 0.08) | — | 36.0 (± 0.07) |
| 4G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
A
Airtel
|
59 (± 0.06) |
|
B
BSNL
|
41 (± 0.27) |
|
J
Jio
|
48 (± 0.05) |
|
V
Vi
|
62 (± 0.08) |
| 3G Games Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
A
Airtel
|
36 (± 0.30) |
|
B
BSNL
|
36 (± 0.08) |
|
J
Jio
|
— |
|
V
Vi
|
36 (± 0.07) |
Opensignal’s Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. The approach is built on several years of research, quantifying the relationship between technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, it considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games (such as Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor) played around the world.
Airtel held on to our Voice App Experience, with a score of 77.8 points (out of 100), while Vi came close to challenging Airtel with a score of 76.8 points. This was a result of the 2.4 points increase reported by our Vi users, compared to the increase of 2.3 points reported by Airtel users since our previous report. Jio users saw an 1.3 points increase which was good enough to push Jio up from the Poor to Acceptable category. However, BSNL remained in the Poor category with 69.7 points, despite the improvement of 3.6 points reported by our users connected to its network.
|
Voice App Experience
Additional Metrics |
A
Airtel
|
B
BSNL
|
J
Jio
|
V
Vi
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | ||||
|
4G Voice App Experience
| 77.8 (± 0.02) | 71.4 (± 0.24) | 74.8 (± 0.02) | 77.6 (± 0.03) |
|
3G Voice App Experience
| 69.4 (± 0.62) | 69.1 (± 0.20) | — | 68.6 (± 0.15) |
| 4G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
A
Airtel
|
78 (± 0.02) |
|
B
BSNL
|
71 (± 0.24) |
|
J
Jio
|
75 (± 0.02) |
|
V
Vi
|
78 (± 0.03) |
| 3G Voice App Experience | in 0-100 points |
|
A
Airtel
|
69 (± 0.62) |
|
B
BSNL
|
69 (± 0.20) |
|
J
Jio
|
— |
|
V
Vi
|
69 (± 0.15) |
An Acceptable rating means users were satisfied with the quality of the call and were generally able to comprehend without repetition, while some may have suffered from perceptible call quality impairments such as clicking sounds or distortion. Likewise, a Poor rating means many users were dissatisfied and likely suffered from increased call quality impairments.
Opensignal’s Voice App Experience quantifies the quality of consumers’ experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services using apps like WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger over mobile networks. It ranks operators on a scale of 0-100 using a mean opinion score (MOS) model derived from an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) based approach for quantifying overall voice call quality.
In our last report, we saw Airtel’s lead in Download Speed Experience over Vi shrink to 3.5%. And this time, Vi beats Airtel’s score by 1.4 Mbps (13.2%) and wins our Download Speed Experience award with a score of 11.9 Mbps. While our users on Vi’s network experienced a boost of 1.8 Mbps (18.4%) in their average download speeds, users on Airtel, BSNL and Jio saw their speeds increase fractionally by 0.1-0.6 Mbps. As a result of this, Airtel is in second-place with a score of 10.5 Mbps, followed by Jio’s score of 7.1 Mbps, while BSNL is in last place with 3.3 Mbps.
|
Download Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
A
Airtel
|
B
BSNL
|
J
Jio
|
V
Vi
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | ||||
|
4G Download Speed
| 10.5 (± 0.02) | 4.1 (± 0.07) | 7.1 (± 0.01) | 12.7 (± 0.03) |
|
3G Download Speed
| 3.6 (± 0.12) | 3.0 (± 0.02) | — | 3.6 (± 0.02) |
| 4G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
A
Airtel
|
11 (± 0.02) |
|
B
BSNL
|
4 (± 0.07) |
|
J
Jio
|
7 (± 0.01) |
|
V
Vi
|
13 (± 0.03) |
| 3G Download Speed | in Mbps |
|
A
Airtel
|
4 (± 0.12) |
|
B
BSNL
|
3 (± 0.02) |
|
J
Jio
|
— |
|
V
Vi
|
4 (± 0.02) |
When we look at Download Speed Experience by technology, the 4G Download Speed results reflected the overall scores; our Vi users saw the highest speeds with a score of 12.7 Mbps, while Airtel, Jio and BSNL followed behind with scores of 10.5 Mbps, 7.1 Mbps and 4.1 Mbps respectively. In 3G Download Speed Airtel and Vi are numerically tied with scores averaging 3.6 Mbps.
Our users have experienced improved upload speeds across all four networks since the last report. Our users on Vi’s network saw the most significant improvement of 0.9 Mbps (26.5%) in their Upload Speed Experience, while those on Airtel reported a 0.7 Mbps increase. As a result of this Vi once again won our Upload Speed Experience award, this time with a score of 4.5 Mbps, and enhanced its lead over Airtel’s score (3.6 Mbps) by 0.2 Mbps. Our BSNL and Jio users also saw 0.2-0.4 Mbps faster average upload speeds, but their scores lagged significantly behind at 1.2 Mbps and 2.5 Mbps, respectively.
|
Upload Speed Experience
Additional Metrics |
A
Airtel
|
B
BSNL
|
J
Jio
|
V
Vi
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | ||||
|
4G Upload Speed
| 3.6 (± 0.01) | 1.8 (± 0.03) | 2.5 (± 0.00) | 4.8 (± 0.01) |
|
3G Upload Speed
| 1.0 (± 0.06) | 1.0 (± 0.01) | — | 1.1 (± 0.01) |
| 4G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
A
Airtel
|
4 (± 0.01) |
|
B
BSNL
|
2 (± 0.03) |
|
J
Jio
|
3 (± 0.00) |
|
V
Vi
|
5 (± 0.01) |
| 3G Upload Speed | in Mbps |
|
A
Airtel
|
1 (± 0.06) |
|
B
BSNL
|
1 (± 0.01) |
|
J
Jio
|
— |
|
V
Vi
|
1 (± 0.01) |
Upload speeds are becoming increasingly important in mobile services, with changing usage patterns and consumption habits. Mobile users now engage more on social media apps — creating and sharing high-resolution images and videos — and are moving away from content consumption to content creation, which gives operators with the fastest upload speeds a distinct advantage.
India’s 4G-only operator Jio once again claimed our 4G Availability award. The average proportion of time that our Jio users spent connected to 4G has increased by 0.5 percentage points since our last report to reach an impressive score of 99.2%. Airtel’s 4G Availability score has also grown by 1.8 percentage points to 97.4%. It is commendable to see such growth, given the very limited scope for improvement. However, the greatest increase of 5.1 percentage points was reported by our Vi users, who experienced 89.2% 4G Availability, while BSNL surpassed the 60% mark with a score of 61.1%.
Additionally, the improvements that our Vi users have seen in our other metrics, is likely due to a significant improvement in 4G Availability because as users spend more time connected to the superior 4G standard, compared with the less capable and older 3G technology, users’ overall experience scores will increase. A higher 4G Availability helps to improve the overall mobile network experience of users.
Jio held onto our 4G Coverage Experience award with the highest score of 9.4 points (on a 10-point scale), followed by Airtel and Vi’s scores of 7.6 points and 6.1 points, respectively, while BSNL was further away with a score of 2.5 points. Our users observed the most significant growth of 0.4 points on Airtel’s network, while our users on Vi and Jio have seen improvements of 0.2 points and 0.1 points, respectively, since Opensignal’s last India report.
Opensignal’s 4G Coverage Experience is a measure of how our mobile subscribers experience 4G coverage on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-10, it analyzes the locations where customers of a network operator received a 4G signal relative to the locations visited by Opensignal users of all network operators.
In our regional analysis, we assessed how the mobile network experience varies across India's 21 circles. Our results highlight how our users' experience on India's four national operators – Airtel, BSNL, Jio and Vi – compare, depending on the circles they are located in and the type of service offered by operators in those circles.
In Video Experience, the national winner Airtel wins outright in seven circles, including Gujarat where our Airtel users enjoyed a Very Good Experience — better than the national average. Airtel further collected a joint win with Vi in the Orissa circle. Meanwhile, Vi collected 11 awards outright and jointly won with Jio in the Northeast circle. Jio won one award in Himachal Pradesh.
Like our national results,Airtel dominates regional Voice App Experience. Airtel tops in 11 circles outright, including Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh circles, where our users on its network enjoyed a Good Voice App Experience. Furthermore, Airtel jointly wins with Vi in three cities: in the Delhi metro circle, North-east circle and Orissa circle.
Turning to speed, we saw Vi take home 28 (out of a possible 42 awards) while Airtel won 11 awards, for both download and upload speed categories combined. In regional Download Speed Experience Vi won outright in 13 circles, while Airtel won outright in six circles including four out of five A category circles: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Additionally, both operators jointly won this category in Orissa. We saw similar results in Upload Speed Experience; Vi won outright in 15 circles, while Airtel won in five circles. In Himachal Pradesh, Jio and Vi shared the first place.
Lastly, on our analysis of regional 4G Availability, Jio won outright in all 21 circles. Meanwhile, our Airtel users experienced more than 95% 4G Availability in each of the circles and 97.7-98.3% 4G Availability in the metro circles. Our Vi users saw a wider variation in 4G Availability than Airtel and Jio — ranging from 77.4% (Himachal Pradesh) to 95% (Mumbai metro circle) — depending on the circle.
Select any region or city below to display individual breakdown
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
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