Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Smartphone users on Airtel enjoyed the best available quality of experience when streaming videos, playing multiplayer mobile games, or using over-the-top (OTT) voice services. As a result, Airtel is the outright winner of Opensignal's Video Experience, Games Experience and Voice App Experience awards in India.
Vi is the winner of the Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience awards. Our users on Vi's network saw average download speeds of 13.6 Mbps — 0.4 Mbps faster than our Airtel users. Likewise, our Vi users observed the fastest upload speeds of 4.9 Mbps, on average, followed by those on Airtel and Jio, with speeds averaging 4.3 Mbps and 4.1 Mbps, respectively.
India's 4G-only operator, Jio, is victorious on 4G Availability as our users on its network spent the greatest proportion of time connected to 4G services — 99.5%. Airtel is in second-place with a 4G Availability score of 98.3%, followed by Vi's score of 92%, while BSNL lagged further behind with 63.6%. Jio also leads on 4G Coverage experience with a score of 9.5 (on a 10-point scale).
Jio wins the Excellent Consistent Quality award, as the operator met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for HD video, group video conference calls and gaming for the highest percentage of users' tests. Jio's score of 62.5% is eight percentage points ahead of second-placed Airtel's 54.5%. Jio also wins the Core Consistent Quality award with 85.9% — a lead of 8.8 percentage points over the closest rival, Airtel.
Currently, India is the world's second-largest telecommunications market, with over 1.1 billion subscriptions, of which wireless telephone connections constitute 98% of total connections. This very high share indicates that India's population is heavily dependent on mobile data services to access the internet for many day-to-day activities — including work, education, entertainment or social interaction. Hence mobile network experience is becoming an increasingly important factor for India's young population.
In this report, we have assessed the mobile network experience of the four main mobile network operators in India: Airtel, BSNL, Jio and Vi, over a period of 90 days starting on December 1, 2021, and ending on February 28, 2022, to see how they fared nationally as well as in 22 telecom circles.
Opensignal’s latest analysis of the Indian mobile market reveals a fiercely competitive landscape with the country's three big operators having differentiated themselves on different aspects of mobile network experience. While Airtel swept the awards for our Quality of Experience (QoE) measures — Video Experience, Games Experience and Voice App Experience — Vi leads the race in both speed awards. Jio, on the other hand, dominated the measures for the extent of cellular services — Availability, 4G Availability, 4G Coverage Experience — as well as for consistent quality. In contrast, BSNL is the only operator that does not win any awards. These results highlight the importance of measuring multiple factors that contribute to a good mobile network experience, rather than just focusing on speed.
In November 2021, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) published a consultation paper seeking input from stakeholders on a wide range of matters relating to the 5G spectrum auction. Following this, the Government of India announced the auction will be conducted in 2022, with the rollout of 5G services to begin in the 2022-23 financial year. Once India begins its 5G journey, its existing networks will be an essential foundation for the smooth transition to 5G.
Looking at the quality of experience while streaming video on smartphones, our Airtel users reported the best available experience in India. Airtel wins the Video Experience award with an overall score of 41.3 points. With this score, Airtel commands a lead of 0.3 points over Jio and 1.8 points over Vi. On the other hand, BSNL was further away with 13.2 points.
India's mobile video consumption has shown tremendous growth over the past few years, especially due to smartphone devices taking over as the preferred medium. This means the quality of experience while streaming video is more important to Indian smartphone users than ever before, giving operators with a better Video Experience a distinct advantage. And for the time being, Airtel holds this advantage.
Opensignal’s Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's networks. The metric is based on an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived video experience as reported by real people. To calculate video experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices and using this ITU approach to quantify the overall video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions — including Full HD (FHD) and 4K / Ultra HD (UHD) — and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
In addition to Video Experience, we report on the following metrics related to video experience:
With one of the world's youngest populations, India is one of the top markets for mobile gaming in terms of the number of users. On the back of the growing penetration of affordable smartphones, low-cost data, and improved bandwidth, the number of online gamers has risen exponentially, making Games Experience an important aspect of users' mobile network experience.
Opensignal’s analysis shows that Airtel has the edge when it comes to multiplayer mobile gaming. Airtel wins the Games Experience award outright with 62.3 points, beating its closest rival Vi by 0.6 points (on a scale of 0-100). Jio trailed close behind with 60.4 points, while BSNL was last placed with 36.4 points.
Opensignal’s Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter.
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.
Calculating Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games. The score is then measured on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Games Experience, we report on the following metrics related to games experience:
Airtel wins the Voice App Experience award with a score of 78.1 points. Meaning, our users on Airtel's network perceived the best available experience while using over-the-top (OTT) voice app services such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger. Jio and Vi are in second- and third-place, respectively, with scores of 77.9 and 77.2 points — more than 11 points ahead of BSNL's score.
With these scores, Airtel, Vi and Jio place in the Acceptable category, while BSNL places in the Poor category for Voice App Experience.
Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality. Voice App Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Voice App Experience, we report on the following metrics related to voice app experience:
Vi is the outright winner of the Download Speed Experience award, as our users on its network reported the highest average download speeds in India of 13.6 Mbps. Airtel is second-placed with a slightly lower Download Speed Experience score of 13.2 Mbps, followed by the 12.6 Mbps reported by Jio users. Meanwhile, BSNL was last-placed, with speeds averaging 2.6 Mbps nationally.
Measured in Mbps, Download Speed Experience represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across an operator’s mobile data networks.
In addition to Download Speed Experience, we report on the following metrics related to download speeds:
Like Download Speed Experience, the fastest average upload speeds were also reported by our users on Vi's network. Vi wins the Upload Speed Experience award with a score of 4.9 Mbps — 0.6 Mbps (14.7%) greater than its closest rival, Airtel, and four times faster than last-paced BSNL.
Upload Speed Experience measures the average upload speeds for each operator observed by our users across their mobile data networks. Typically upload speeds are slower than download speeds, as current mobile broadband technologies focus resources on providing the best possible download speed for users consuming content on their devices. As mobile internet trends move away from downloading content to creating content and supporting real-time communications services, upload speeds are becoming more vital and new technologies are emerging that boost upstream capacity.
In addition to Upload Speed Experience, we report on five supporting metrics related to upload speeds:
Looking at the regional Video Experience, the national winner Airtel bagged 10 wins. The operator wins outright in seven circles — Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (West) — and collected joint wins in a further three circles, including Gujarat and West Bengal, where it shared the top spot with Vi.
Airtel dominates the regional results for Games Experience and Voice App Experience. On Games Experience, Airtel wins outright in 11 circles and collects joint wins in a further three. Likewise, on Voice Experience, Airtel wins in 13 circles — it is the sole winner in 12 circles and a joint winner in Assam alongside Jio.
Turning to the speed categories, Vi wins the most regional awards for Download and Upload Speed Experience. Our users on Vi's network enjoyed the top download speeds in 10 circles, compared to our Airtel and Jio users, who saw the fastest download speeds in six circles each. As with Upload Speed Experience, Vi is the sole winner in 14 circles, while Airtel wins in six circles and Jio wins in the remaining two — Delhi and Kerala.
Jio wins the Availability award as our users across all four national networks spent the most time connected to a 3G, 4G or 5G signal on Jio's network of 99.5%. Airtel places second with a score of 98.2%, followed by Vi with 95.3%, while BSNL is in last place with 82.5%.
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
Availability shows the proportion of time all Opensignal users on an operator’s network had either a 3G, 4G or 5G connection.
Our Jio 4G users enjoyed the highest 4G Availability in India. As a result, the operator wins the award for this measure outright — with an impressive score of 99.5%. This means that our 4G users on Jio's network, on average, spent 99.5% of their time connected to 4G services. On the other hand, Airtel users observed the second highest 4G Availability with a slightly lower score of 98.3%, and Vi was further away with 92%. Meanwhile, BSNL has a lot to catch up on, given its 4G Availability score of 63.6%.
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
4G Availability shows the proportion of time Opensignal users with a 4G device and a 4G subscription — but have never connected to 5G — had a 4G connection.
Jio also leads in 4G Coverage Experience award with an impressive score of 9.5 points — 1.6 points ahead of second-placed Airtel — which means our Jio users connected to the 4G network in more than 95 out of 100 locations they visited. Opensignal's 4G Coverage Experience analyzes the locations where customers of a network operator received a 4G signal relative to the locations visited by users of all network operators.
4G Coverage Experience measures how 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 users of all network operators.
In simple terms, 4G Coverage Experience measures the mobile coverage experience in all the locations that matter most to everyday users — i.e. all the places where they live, work and travel. It considers all the areas that Opensignal users visit, the portion of locations that 4G is available to them, and locations that more users visit have higher importance to them.
In line with the national results, Jio dominates in Availability regionally. Jio is the outright winner for this category across all 22 circles. Our users on its network were able to spend more than 99% of the time connected to cellular service in each and every Indian telecom circle.
Jio met the minimum recommended performance thresholds in 62.5% of users' tests for HD video, group video conference calls, and gaming — the highest in India. As a result, Jio takes home the Excellent Consistent Quality award.
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Excellent Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games.
Jio is the sole winner of the Core Consistent Quality award. The operator's winning score of 85.9% gives it a lead of 8.8 and 16.8 percentage points over second and third-placed Airtel and Vi, respectively.
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Core Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing.
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile and broadband user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
Opensignal is the leading global provider of independent insights into consumers' connectivity experiences and choice of carrier. Our proprietary insights into mobile and broadband networks give operators the solutions they need to profitably compete and win, from executive level scorecards and public validation to pin-point level engineering analytics and consumer decision dynamics.
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For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.
In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.
In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.
Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience