Airtel 4G Hyderabad

[kreacher]

Got a SMS from Airtel today saying that 4G is available in Hyderabad.
This Enter your number says my handset supports 4G and I have a right 3G plan for a free upgrade. The only thing missing is a 4G SIM which will be delivered to my house in 4 hours if I enter my address (without requiring any documentation).

So my questions -
1. Has anyone tried this and is this upgrade really free and painless?
2. Does the Moto X (2nd gen) actually work with 4G bands in India?
3. Is the 4G coverage (signal strength / call drops) in Hyderabad better or worse than 3G?

 

[madhusudhan7]

1. I've upgraded in Bangalore, it's usually flawless. You should go ahead since it's anyways free

2. Moto X supports 1800 MHz and i guess that's the bands Airtel is using in Hyderabad. Moto X does not support 2300 MHz that Airtel uses in Bangalore. Anyways their backend check that tells your handset is supported should be reliable enough

 

[kreacher]

Thanks, I'll try it out. Hope the network is at least as good (bad) as 3G and not worse.

 

[madhusudhan7]

1800 MHz is a much better band than 2300 MHz that they are using in most other places. You should ideally get good coverage and speeds

*Anyways do post the speeds before and after upgrade, a review if possible

 

[kreacher]

Speeds have improved, getting around 15Mbps (4Mbps on 3G). Signal strength seems similar, will see how call quality changes over the next few days.
EDIT: Speed test Screenshot. Top 3 are with 4G and the others are on 3G.

 

[madhusudhan7]

15mbps is no good, it should clock a lot more than that. I see that there are approx 4 bars in the signal indicator in this image

 

[kreacher]

Yeah, the signal strength seems to be better than 3G occasionally but it's not great.

 

[madhusudhan7]

Have you tried in other locations, where the signal strength is better ?

 

[kreacher]

A friend tried with his phone and it still doesn't cross 15Mbps.

 

[madhusudhan7]

Well that's sad, I get over 40 Mbps when the signal strengths are good. Something is wrong in Hyderabad

Here's my speed test from recent past: