Tier-two cities outpace metros in 4G availability

Delhi and Mumbai found the place in the lower half of the table, neck-and-neck with scores just shy of 90 per cent, behind Hyderabad's 90.5 per cent

Sonal Khetarpal New Delhi Last Updated: March 29, 2019 | 15:23 IST

The world may have been talking about 5G network, in India, you still have to switch places to access better phone network across the country, be it tier-one or tier-two cities. Among them, however, tier-two towns outpace the metros when it comes to 4G availability.

India's coal capital, Dhanbad, tops the list for 4G availability, says a report by Opensignal. Ranchi is second on the list, followed by Srinagar.

The wireless coverage mapping firm looked at 50 largest cities of India and analysed them by their 4G Availability based on a combined score for all operators that operate a 4G network in those metros. The report measures the proportion of time users with a 4G device and subscription can get a network connection in the places they most commonly visit. So, when an operator has a 4G availability score of 95 per cent, that means LTE users on that network were connected to 4G services 95 per cent of the time. It does not measure coverage or the geographic extent of a network. Therefore, 4G availability represents when users have an LTE connection, rather than where, providing a far more accurate reflection of the true mobile user experience.

Dhanbad scored 95.3 per cent in Opensignal's measurements - one of the only two cities to pass the 95 per cent mark. The other was Ranchi, which scored 95 per cent in 4G availability. Srinagar was just shy of the 95 per cent mark with a 4G availability score of 94.9 per cent.

The much-larger metropolis of Raipur stood fourth, scoring 94.8 per cent, followed by Patna with 94.5 per cent.

Of India's largest cities, none really stoked the fires in Opensignal's 4G availability analysis. Delhi and Mumbai found the place in the lower half of the table, neck-and-neck with scores just shy of 90 per cent, behind Hyderabad's 90.5 per cent. Bangalore stood in the middle of the table with 92.3 per cent score, while Ahmedabad scored 92.7 per cent.

Nonetheless, all 50 Indian cities scored over 87 per cent 4G availability, putting the country in the list of developed mobile markets of the world, the report said.