Telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio have all registered a dip in download speeds in April as compared to the previous months, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data reveals. According to the data released by Trai, Reliance Jio topped the charts in April with an average download speed of 13.3 Mbps followed by Vodafone with an average download speed of 5.6 Mbps. Bharti Airtel registered an average download speed of 5.5 Mbps while Idea took the last spot with an average download speed of 5.4 Mbps.
Steep Decrease in Download Speeds in April
In March, Trai data reveals that Jio registered an average download speed of 19.5 Mbps while Vodafone registered an average download speed of 6.7 Mbps. With an average download speed of 6.2 Mbps in March, Airtel took the third spot while Idea took the final spot with an download speed of 5.1 Mbps.
Trai said that its data is generated using its MySpeed app that is said to be designed to measure data speed experience, signal strength and “other network information.”
The data from Trai that captures the network performance of the operators for the past six months highlights that the operators had registered a peak performance in February. Reliance Jio delivered an average download speed of 21.5 Mbps in February while Airtel and Vodafone had registered an identical average download speed of 8 Mbps. Idea took the final spot with the average download speed on the network said to 6.3 Mbps.
Telecom Operators Register Marginal Dip in Upload Speeds in April
According to the data from Trai, the telecom operators registered only a marginal dip in upload speeds as compared to the download speeds in the same period.
In April, Vodafone registered an average upload speed of 5.4 Mbps followed by Idea with an average upload speed of 5.1 Mbps. Both Vodafone and Idea registered an average upload speeds of 5.8 Mbps and 5.1 Mbps respectively in March.
Meanwhile, Jio and Airtel registered an identical average upload speeds of 3.1 Mbps in April. Further, Jio registered an average upload speed of 3.6 Mbps in March while Airtel registered an average upload speed of 3.2 Mbps.
Similar to the download speeds, the operators registered peak upload speeds in February with Vodafone recording an average upload speed of 6.5 Mbps. Idea registered an upload speed of 5.5 Mbps while Jio had an upload speed of 3.9 Mbps. Airtel occupied the final spot with an average upload speed of 3.7 Mbps in February.
It has to be noted that the COVID-19 lockdown began on March 25 with the telecom operators witnessing a surge in traffic due to several subscribers using the mobile networks for professional use. With India having a registered wired broadband subscriber base of 19.08 million as of January 31, the mobile networks emerged as a crucial element in connectivity. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the industry body for operators like Vodafone and Airtel had urged the Over-the-Top (OTT) players to reduce streaming quality for better network infrastructure in March. Additionally, COAI worked with municipal authorities to reopen several sealed towers while the operators also worked on redistribution of traffic. Despite the steps taken by COAI and the operators, Trai data reveals that the operators were unable to maintain the huge surge in data traffic as the download speeds had certainly registered a dip in April.
