Airtel Tops 5G Speeds, Jio Hits 70% Availability
Bharti Airtel continues to top India’s 5G performance charts, according to Opensignal’s June 2025 Mobile Network Experience report. The operator secured first place across all major 5G speed categories, recording average download speeds of 212 Mbps and upload speeds of 22.6 Mbps. Airtel earned top marks in user experience metrics such as video, live video streaming and mobile gaming.
The consistent high-speed performance highlights Airtel’s commitment to providing premium network experiences.
The operator currently uses a non-standalone (NSA) 5G architecture that leverages existing 4G infrastructure for rapid urban deployment, with plans to transition to standalone (SA) 5G underway.
Reliance Jio leads in overall coverage and speed
While Airtel dominates in pure 5G speeds, Reliance Jio leads overall mobile network performance.
The report reveals that Jio delivers the highest average download speed across all technologies at 106.3 Mbps, almost double Airtel’s 58.6 Mbps. It edges ahead in overall upload speeds, reaching 9.1 Mbps compared to Airtel’s 9.0 Mbps.
Crucially, Jio boasts the highest 5G availability score in India, with users connected to 5G networks over 70% of the time, more than twice Airtel’s availability.
The result reflects Jio’s aggressive rollout strategy using standalone 5G, combining low-band (700 MHz) spectrum for rural coverage and mid-band (3.5 GHz) for urban density, reserving mmWave for ultra-high capacity environments.
Slower speeds amid explosive user growth
Despite their leadership positions, both operators are experiencing a dip in 5G speeds as user numbers soar. Compared to Opensignal’s October 2024 report, Airtel’s average 5G download speed has dropped by 28 Mbps, while Jio’s fell by 21 Mbps.
The trend is attributed to growing network congestion and increased peak-hour usage as more subscribers migrate to 5G.
India’s 5G subscriber base now exceeds 300 million, with Jio accounting for 191 million and Airtel 135 million.
As network load increases, performance metrics are affected, especially in dense urban areas and during high-traffic periods.
Infrastructure and spectrum constraints impacting performance
India’s rapid 5G adoption has significantly increased data consumption, with 5G users now consuming around 24.1 GB per month, up 24% year-on-year.
Much of the current infrastructure relies on low-band spectrum, which offers wider coverage but limited bandwidth. Shared 4G/5G NSA deployments, like Airtel’s, face particular challenges in managing simultaneous data demands.
“To unlock 5G’s full potential, India must focus on deploying more mid- and high-band spectrum, upgrade backhaul infrastructure and further densify network rollout,” noted Rounak Agarwal, Team Leader at CRISIL Ratings. “Data usage per subscriber could reach 28–30 GB per month by fiscal 2025.”
Vodafone Idea (Vi) and BSNL lag behind the market leaders. While Vi has made minor gains in 5G availability in certain circles, it remains far behind both Airtel and Jio in speed and coverage.
According to a recent Economic Times report, Vi is pursuing an aggressive pricing strategy, planning 5G tariffs up to 15% cheaper than competitors to attract price-sensitive users.
BSNL, which has yet to launch 5G, has made modest improvements to its 4G network but remains behind on all major performance indicators.
Investment, auctions and policy will shape India’s 5G future
Both Jio and Airtel continue to invest in their respective 5G strategies, with spectrum auctions and network densification expected to play a key role in future performance.
Operators are expanding their fibre backhaul and exploring network optimisation to reduce congestion and support emerging use cases such as AI, edge computing and immersive media.
As India transitions into a fully 5G-connected economy, competition between Jio and Airtel aims to drive further innovation, infrastructure growth and service quality improvements, solidifying India’s position as one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing mobile data markets.
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