3G has been launched in India from a long time, but still the mobile 3G users are starving for true 3G speed. Currently there are many 3G service providers in India like Airtel, Vodafone, MTNL, BSNL, Reliance, Idea, Aircel, etc. In spite of so many 3G providers, most of them are not up to the mark to be known as 3G service providers. So after testing most of the 3G providers in Delhi, I thought to share my experiences with our readers, so that they can get a mere hint about the 3G speeds in Delhi. All the screenshot used below are taken from Samsung Galaxy S2 using the Android application of Speedtest.net.
Airtel 3G is one of my personal favorite 3G service provider in Delhi. They provide 10GB of data for Rs. 1500. Although this may seems to be expensive, but the quality of service and speed they are providing, you can’t blame them for such high prices. For me, 10GB of data vanished in couple of days, this can also confirm that the speed of Airtel 3G is awesome and at the same time, it is constant.
Although the above speed is not the fastest speed that I got in Airtel 3G, but still you can get a constant speed of atleast 2Mbps in Airtel 3G in most of the places of Delhi. Although the upload speed seems to be quite low, but I am not considering upload speed in this article.
I tried Reliance 3G because of their prices. Reliance 3G is relatively cheaper than other 3G service providers. I got a Reliance 3G GSM for 319 Rs. with 3GB of free 3G data. Reliance 3G is not as stable as Airtel 3G and the speed of Reliance 3G can fluctuate from 0.1Mbps to 7Mbps. I found Reliance 3G quite irritating because when I wanted it the most, it went down to 2G like speed. But at some places Reliance 3G gave wonderful 3G speed test results.
In the above screenshot, you can see the download speed of 6.17Mbps, but still I am not totally convinced with Reliance 3G, because of their fluctuating speed. But if yur place is getting a constant and good speed in Reliance 3G, then you can opt for it as it is comparatively cheaper than other 3G service providers.
Vodafone 3G is also known for its good 3G offers and quality service. To be honest, I was in a dilemma, whether to go for Airtel 3G or Vodafone 3G, as Vodafone 3G is as good as Airtel 3G, plus Vodafone offer 10GB of 3G data only for 1250 Rs, against Rs. 1500 which is charged by Airtel for 10GB 3G data. But Vodafone 3G speed may sometime reduce to 0.4Mbps (or below) at the time of high network congestions, which is not the case with Airtel 3G. But overall, Vodafone is equally good as Airtel 3G.
I have mentioned BSNL, MTNL and Dolphin under a same category because in Delhi all the three providers means the same. MTNL was among the first company to bring 3G in India. I was excited to buy MTNL 3G SIM because one of my friend told me that he was getting around 4Mbps speed in MTNL 3G. So I thought to give it a try, but MTNL 3G falls beyond my expectations. I was even not able to surf internet properly, meanwhile MTNL 2G was way much better and stable than MTNL 3G. I tried MTNL 3G at many places in Delhi, but I was not able to get some good speed at any place, therefore I was forced to throw the MTNL SIM away. I did not took the screenshot of MTNL 3G because the speed does not deserve to have a screenshot.
Idea 3G is also know for its good 3G speed. But in reality, Idea 3G network are not as strong as Airtel and Vodafone, so it is quite possible that at many places in Delhi, you won’t be able to find 3G network of Idea. So it does not makes any sense to me to pay for Idea 3G, when at most of the places I have to use it as 2G.
There are few more 3G providers in Delhi like Docomo and all, but till now I have not tried them, as I have been sticked to Airtel 3G from a long time and I am really happy with them. If you have any good or bad experiences with any 3G service provider, than don’t forget to share that with us, this will surely help others to choose a good 3G operator. Please don’t forget to mention your 3G operator and State or place (if possible).
You considered MTNL and BSNL under same category? What a ‘case’ you are! And I bet you havent tested BSNL 3G. I am not living in Delhi. I am in outskirts of Meerut where BSNL gives an average.speed of 2.5 MBPS. , least of 1.5 MBPS and highest of 6.8 MBPS. And in Delhi I think you should get even better speeds. I am soon going to.post a screenshot to validate my statement.
bro you are perfectly right about all the providers…anyways i live in west delhi near dwarka more metro station and according to my area vodafone is jus a bOom..i tried airtel 3g also but it gave me a inconsistent speed of 2mbps..on the other hand as i switched to vodafoe 3g omg i was getting 7mbps and upload speed of 2.50mbps…am gonna upload the screenshot so that u can believe me….vodafone is jus awsm………
I stay in mumbai.and i have tested 4 3g provider.relianc is d orst.airtel.is the best with around 4mps and vodfone with 2mps and mtnl hardly reach 1mbs.reliance almost do not.have proper 3g coverage.the other remaning operator do not have 3g liceances
I stay in cuttack, odisha.. Here there are three 3G operators namely BSNL, Reliance & Aircel. I have used all the three. Reliance provides a good service at max of 700kbps download, but Bsnl is far better than reliance. But my personal experience suggests that even if reliance is cheap, never go for it. You will never get a satisfactory response from there customer executives. More over they tell lies straightforward with a bit of arrogance. They are really cheating people in the name of service. BSNL and Aircel are far better than them.