It’s a good time to be a mobile customer in India with Airtel expanding its LTE service in major cities using the 900 MHz band and Jio making continuous progress on its mission to provide 4G coverage to all Indians. All this good news made us want to check in to see what cellular availability in India currently looks like.
We analyzed General Availability and 4G Availability using coverage data from 250,138,853 samples on 595,034 enabled devices during Q3-Q4 2018. General Availability is the percentage of an operator’s known locations where a device has access to any kind of service (including roaming). 4G Availability is then the percentage of an operator’s known locations where a device has access to LTE service (including roaming). We compared these results across Indian mobile operators to see which provides the best availability.    

Cellular service is widely available across India

General Availability statistics are good for all of India’s major mobile operators. In a country where there are only 1.33 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people, access to mobile internet is critical. Jio’s General Availability was best, with users finding service in 99.3% of locations. Airtel was second at 99.1%, followed closely by Vodafone (99.0%) and Idea (98.9%).
Percentage of Locations With Cellular Service
India | Q3-Q4 2018
OperatorGeneral Availability (%)
Jio99.3
Airtel99.1
Vodafone99.0
Idea98.9
As you can see from the map below, most areas in India are covered by at least one of the country’s four largest mobile operators.
All-Carrer-Map-Animate-1
Coverage data relies on the presence of a user in a location, so it’s normal to see the majority of results that show coverage (seen in blue) coming from the most populated areas. When a sample is taken and a user does not have cellular coverage (seen in red), that data is transmitted later. Areas that show no dot are places where no coverage data was collected. These gaps often correspond with national parks or other remote areas that people visit less frequently.
Jio showed the densest pattern of coverage samples for General Availability across India, with only a few areas where coverage data showed no service.
Airtel’s pattern of coverage samples showed only slightly less areas with coverage. Airtel had only slightly more “no service” areas, particularly in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
Idea and Vodafone had a similar density of coverage samples showing coverage, but were strong in different parts of the country. Idea showed more density in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, while Vodafone was stronger in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Neither showed a large number of “no service” areas.

4G availability in India depends on your mobile operator

LTE connections, while widely available in much of India, depend heavily on which mobile operator a consumer has chosen. At a country-level, Jio shows an impressive 98.8% 4G Availability. That means that a Jio customer has access to LTE service at 98.8% of surveyed locations. Airtel is second at 90.0%, followed by Vodafone (84.6%) and Idea (82.8%).
Percentage of Locations with LTE Service
India | Q3-Q4 2018