5G speeds in India have come down considerably.
Airtel has shown some improvements in its 5G speeds. The speeds have gone up from 230Mbps to around 250Mbps across India. However, the peak download speeds are comparatively lower than Jio.
According to TRAI, data consumption using 5G surged to 12.6 percent in Q4 2023, which corresponds to 6239 petabytes. Jio has reported that its 5G traffic is now approaching 30 percent of the mobility data traffic. The number of 5G customers increased to 180 million, with the majority being Jio users (108 million) while Airtel 5G Plus has 72 million.
One main thing to note is that 5G is currently offered free of cost to all users and this is why the data consumption has grown at an exponential rate. Once 5G plans start rolling out, which should happen soon going by the hints by Airtel's chairman, the quality of the 5G network should become stable as this will bring balance between 4G and 5G users. Vi is currently testing its 5G services in a few circles and is believed to roll out soon.
Beyond the 5G on smartphones, both Jio and Airtel offer FWA services across India. This offers broadband-like internet connectivity. As per the report, the 5G performance in mobile connectivity and FWA broadband is similar.