Rolling out 4G but telcos struggling to provide basic 3G speeds

Trai data shows that telecom companies in India are failing to provide decent 3G speeds on your smartphones, Aseem Manchanda reports.

Telecom service providers in India are currently in the process of rolling out 4G services which promise greater speeds.  

However, as per the Trai data, the average download speed provided by telecom companies is just 2Mbps. On 3G network, a user should get a minimum speed of 3.6Mbps up to a maximum of 21Mbps. 

According to Trai, half of the country gets 3G speed of 1Mbps and the other half gets 2Mbps of speed. 

The survey was conducted by Trai, where the users were asked to share their internet speed details.

Airtel was at the top, with highest average speed for 3G in the country at 4.53Mbps, followed by Idea with 2.92Mbps. The data for other telecom companies showed Vodafone with 2.46Mbps, Aircel with 1.7Mbps, BSNL with 1.5Mbps, Tata with 1.3Mbps and MTNL provided the poorest average speed at just 1Mbps. 

But, the speed varies from location to location. 

In Delhi, Airtel's 3G speed stood at 6.7Mbps, Idea at 2.6Mbps, Vodafone at 2.7Mbps, Aircel at 0.3Mbps, BSNL at 1.9Mbps, Tata 1.4Mbps and MTNL 0.8Mbps.

While in Mumbai the survey showed that Airtel's 3G speed stood at 6.7Mbps, Idea at 1.0Mbps, Vodafone's 4.5Mbps, Aircel at 0.5Mbps, Tata 0.4Mbps and MTNL 1.4Mbps, which is marginally better than the speed in the capital.

The average speed in Gujarat is just 1.3Mbps. The regulatory body had collected only 344 sample in the state.

The survey's results also pointed out that downloading speed was still better than the uploading speed. Trai has been analysing the average speed, and will soon issue a consultation paper. It may also decide the average speed for 3G and 4G data for telecom companies. But till then, the telecom companies will continue to provide "below average" speed.

On Wednesday, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha in a reply to Lok Sabha, said, "The service providers had been representing to TRAI about the difficulty in offering a minimum download speed to consumers. TRAI held several meetings with the service providers in this regard and decided to develop a mobile app named 'TRAI My Speed'".

This application allows customers to measure their data speed experience and sends the results to TRAI. The application captures and sends coverage, data speed and other network information along with device and location of the tests.