Now that 4G has become so common in India, not even operators want to talk about 3G anymore. Till last year, only Airtel had launched 4G service in India, but this year we saw Vodafone and Idea catching up with Airtel in many circles on 4G front putting up serious competition. Few circles in India now have more than one 4G operator and Mumbai is one of it. Today we find who is the best 4G operator in Mumbai.
What makes 4G stand out is its speed as the pricing is almost same for both Airtel and Vodafone, also same as their 3G offering. So we put to test both networks to know their best 4G speeds. The tests were conducted by our reader Tejas Jhaveri from Borivali East, Mumbai.
The tests were conducted at three different times of the day 3pm, 6pm and 9pm revealing how the network performed during peak times. At time of testing both network were having almost full signal strength.
Airtel 4G
Airtel 4G lived up to the expectation by offering speeds between 32 Mbps and 41 Mbps. The speed only kept improving when tested at night peak hours. No wonder Airtel put up 4G challenge to show its superior network speed than any other operator. Airtel is able to provide 4G speeds above 30mbps thanks to the 2300 MHz spectrum it use for 4G service in Mumbai.
Vodafone 4G
Vodafone 4G speeds were no better than peak 3G speeds provided by many networks. The speeds were between 8 Mbps to 9 Mbps struggling to cross the 10Mbps mark. The low speeds of Vodafone 4G can be attributed to the limited amount of spectrum in 1800 Mhz band Vodafone use for 4G service in Mumbai.
While everyone labelled 2300 Mhz as inefficient for its lack of coverage, when it comes to 4G speeds 2300 MHz band always out perform 1800Mhz band. This will give edge to Airtel and Reliance Jio who now control the major chunk of 2300MHz spectrum allocated in India. Vodafone and Idea who only has 4G capable spectrum in 1800 Mhz may have to consider buying additional spectrum for better 4G speeds.
Inputs: Tejas Jhaveri
Note: The above tests were conducted at Borivali East, Mumbai. 4G speed may vary depending on location and network.
How is 4G network speed in your city? Do send us your 4G speed test results and we will get it published.
