Reliance Jio, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has constructed roughly 1 lakh telecom towers, nearly five times as many as its closest rival, to roll out India's fastest and deepest 5G telecom network and offer ultra-high speed internet, according to the most recent Department of Telecommunications (DoT) data.
According to the DoT National EMF Portal's most recent daily status report, Jio has installed 99,897 base transceiver stations (BTS) over 2 of its owned frequencies (700 MHz and 3,500 MHz). On the other hand, Bharti Airtel has 22,219 BTS, in comparison to Jio.
The March 23 Reports state that for every base station, Jio has 3 cell sites while Airtel has 2, according to the news agency PTI.
Faster speed is correlated with more cell sites and towers. Ookla, a global leader in network intelligence and connectivity insights, reported on February 28 that Jio's best median speed is 506 Mbps (megabytes per second), compared to Airtel's 268 Mbps.
Ookla said in the report, "5G has been in place in India for over four months, and already it's having a tremendous impact on the state of mobile in the country."
"Speed test Intelligence data shows that median download speeds across India increased by 115 per cent since before the 5G launch, from a 13.87 Mbps median download speed in September 2022 to 29.85 Mbps in January 2023."
"Jio experienced a top median 5G download speed of 506.25 Mbps in Kolkata, while Airtel of 268.89 Mbps in Delhi," it said. Airtel and Jio have ambitious targets in terms of the 5G network rollout. "From 5G networks' inception, 5G availability across 5G-capable devices has steadily increased, reaching 8.0 per cent for Airtel and 5.1 per cent for Jio," it said.
India is the second-largest Internet market in the world, just behind China, with over 500 million users. In October 2022, 5G telecom services were introduced.
"Jio's USD 25 billion investment seems to be paying off. In January 2023, Jio achieved median 5G download speeds above 400 Mbps across ten telecom circles. Jio's True 5G network is based on a 5G Standalone (5G SA), which doesn't rely on a 4G LTE network,” said the report
"While Jio's initial 5G speeds fluctuated massively - from low single-digit to speeds well above 800 Mbps, which pointed to the operator recalibrating its networks, Jio's 5G performance has stabilised over the past four months. In January 2023, Jio's 5G early adopters experienced speeds ranging from 246.49 Mbps median download speed in Himachal Pradesh to 506.25 Mbps in Kolkata," Ookla said.
In comparison, "Airtel's 5G early adopters experienced speeds ranging from a 78.13 Mbps median download speed in Kolkata to 268.89 Mbps in Delhi," it added.
In July 2022, Mukesh Ambani resigned as the Director of Reliance Jio with immediate effect, and his eldest son Akash Ambani was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Akash, 30, is the non-executive director at Reliance Jio. He was part of teams that negotiated Meta Platforms Inc.’s investment into Jio’s parent and has led major acquisitions by Jio in the digital space in the last few years. He led the launch of Jio’s 4G services in India with his sister, Isha, and worked towards the launch of JioPhone in 2017.
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