Go back a few years and you would see mobile networks trying their best in offering one major feature, the call connectivity. With time, the shift in focus happened to see more users needing better data connectivity as the network upgrades have resulted in a lot of people opting for data-based options for even making calls.
One of the providers that have been showing promising growth with the quality of the network is Airtel. The network speeds and coverage, both have been getting better. Availability of the network in remote areas has improved as well, especially places like Ladakh where travelers would earlier resort to using satellite phones during the trips. While the industry has been crippled with price wars, Airtel has shown some very positive signs of forging ahead on the back of their network quality and great customer experience.
Ookla, one of the leaders in data speed tests, has for the past few years shown how Airtel has been the #1 network when it comes to the network speeds in India. And while, While Ookla has been consistently finding Airtel to be the leader in speed, Opensignal, which is another renowned global standard in network speed and quality, has ranked Airtel as not only the fastest network, but also the best network for video streaming. Mind you, that this has been established with data collected from over 5 Mn smartphones, with over 20 Bn results between Dec-Feb 2019.
This bring an important point to the front. While download speed is important and largely affects how you use internet on your phone, winning in video streaming experience puts Airtel miles s ahead of other networks in the market. OTT apps and video streaming is the biggest use case for mobile internet with today’s smartphone users. Live sports, movies and shows, even news capsules – people love streaming content online at their convenience.
Source: OpenSignal
So, while having the fastest 4G speed is great, what makes Airtel better is to providing smartphone users a better experience when it comes to video streaming. This means having low latency so that videos load faster and there’s no stalling even in HD video resolution.
What makes Airtel 4G a good network?
There are certain things to consider for the network quality to be called as good. Network speed is an important factor, which they have been leading for a few years now. Coverage is another important factor. Opensignal has reported that Airtel’s 4G network availability has grown by over 10% in the last 6 months (highest in the cateory), with their 4G network now available in over 85% of India. This says a lot about the improvement that has been happening at Airtel network.
Another key factor is network experience, not just outdoors or close to tower locations but more importantly in your homes and offices, where people spend most of their time. That’s why Airtel launched L900 technology in many circles, to make indoor coverage better for users.
The following speed test that we did indoors, with about two walls through, we for speeds over 20 Mbps for download which can be considered excellent. The new L900 technology has been helping Airtel users with better indoor connectivity. And not just with the data speeds, but with call quality too. The call drops that used to happen in the past are now nowhere a part of worries for users because of better penetration of network.
While the network has been the fastest, the availability of 4G network in over 85% of the country says a lot about the improvement that has been happening, and the application of the L900 technology has ensured that the indoor coverage is improved and that makes life easier for the users. It clearly shows that Airtel has been growing consistently with quality, and there are things to prove it has been doing so.
