Airtel 5G is a scam (Rant)

[Deleted member 87056]

Source
Phone shows full signal strength but speeds are not better than a 2G connection from 2008. I was stuck in rain today afternoon and couldn't even book an uber. This is in the center of the City and it was not very crowded, regular traffic. Totally unacceptable.

Just 3 years ago when Airtel 5G was launched, they hyped it so much. I knew it would turn trash once the mass public starts using it and the day has arrived, in my experience. Why can't telecom operators give a reasonable speed or connection quality so that people can atleast use internet for basic needs on the go, is that too much to ask for?
I don't blame Airtel for Jio completely for this because here people can't even afford a 300 rupees recharge. Recently when Airtel and Jio hiked prices, people cried all over the internet. This might come off as a little classist and being privileged but the same people buy the latest iPhone over EMI and can't even afford the recharge.
With such low ARPU the company would obviously refrain to expand their infrastructure as per the demand.

Call quality with Airtel has been so poor lately, I can't hear the other person like 80% of the times. The call would drop randomly if I am talking over the phone while walking in the park or streets. I am a postpaid customer who pays a lot of money to Airtel so this level of service is totally unacceptable.
I doubt Jio would be any better but I am open to suggestions, if enough people say Jio works better for them then I might give it a try and switch if it works well.
No hopes from any other telcos.

 

[phoenix10386]

Bad time to post this, then?

 

[Rhishav]

@87056 No telco is perfect mainly when it comes to wireless usage. You can try your options but no one can guarantee what will work for you. If Airtel is giving you trouble Jio is your second best option. VI/BSNL are not at all reliable for being a primary connection. I would suggest take a secondary Jio sim card and test it out yourself then if your experience is better you can port out easily.

 

[phoenix10386]

It is entirely possible that where @87056 frequents, BSNL might be their best bet, or Vi. Somehow, network performance is a very individual experience. I know where I used to live, the second-best option you mention gave me 0.2 - 2 Mbps down and 0.5 - 1 Mbps up. There, Airtel worked best, Vi second best, and did not test BSNL.

 

[Rhishav]

I think it was the ULI scam that is common in NSA tech @87056 it might show 5G but it could actually be 4G in this case. No way to confirm on iPhone.

 

[Rickysin]

For me airtel works great in 5g. Speeds are mostly 300-400 mbps and 50 mbps upload in chandigarh city. In can even see airtel SA deployed in tricity. So it works on SA+NSA

Jio 5g is very poor here. 30-40 Mbps speed and with 1-2 mbps upload speed with patchy coverage.

 

[pillaicha]

What is SA + NSA?

 

[Rickysin]

Earlier airtel was only NSA(non-standalone) but they had deployed SA(standalone 5g core).

NSA uses 4g core vs SA uses 5g core.

 

[Hitori_Abhito7]

When will airtel move onto SA . It's getting annoying paying so much with even their 5g unlimited offer and getting those 50% data used messages

 

[f0r3he4d]

i got one of those 1 rupee bsnl sims to test out it out in my area. in kolkata it worked great i was getting better than jio 4g speeds inside and outside my place but when i moved back to mumbai(bandra west) speeds dropped to E to no signal very quickly.