Airtel 4G LTE

Don’t expect 40Mbps download speed from Airtel 4G LTE in India

Bharti Airtel launched 4G LTE (4’th Generation Long Term Evolution) network in India, starting from Kolkata. They have released the data plans, tariff details, required devices like USB modem or Indoor Wireless Gateway etc.

According to the Airtel 4G webpage, the company is going to offer 40Mbps download speed to its customer as 4G LTE-TD (Time Division LTE) technology is capable of offering up to 100 Mbps download speed and 40Mbps upload speed. But the question is whether customer will get this much download speed on their 4G devices while surfing the web? Answer is very straight, No.



4G LTE is already available in different parts of world like United States, UK etc. And if you go by the experience of People already using 4G network on their devices, you would find that they actually never get a speed near to even 20 Mbps.

As per the terms and conditions of LTE network provider,

 

Actual Internet speed would depend on multiple factors like device, web pages accessed, time of day, number of simultaneous users etc.

Apart from the above mentioned factors, the distance between your device and the mobile tower does also play an important role. In case of LTE, a single tower may cover area around 100 KM but of course the coverage and signal strength will diminish in metros and cities where you find lot many distractions in between.

What to expect from Airtel 4G LTE connection?

Like other 4G LTE service providers, Airtel will also give you a speed of around 5Mbps to 15Mbps depending on the factors explained earlier in this post. This speed is good for those who wants to download huge games from web, upload HD quality videos or even stream them on bigger screens, stream online TV in living room using Google TV or Apple TV etc. I have seen people getting 2Mbps of download speed on 4G network as well, so don’t get super excited after purchasing a 4G network.

Comparison of Airtel 4G LTE Pricing and 3G pricing

 

Airtel 4G LTE	Airtel 3G
Breakfree Plan Rs. 999/- Data - 6 GB per month	Standard Plan Rs. 750/- Data - 5 GB per month
Breakfree Max Plan Rs. 1399/- Data - 9 GB per month	Flexi Shield Plan Rs. 675/- Data - 3.12 GB per month
Breakfree Ultra Plan Rs. 1999/- Data - 18 GB per month	High Value Plan Rs. 1250/- Data - 12.5 GB per month
Modem for 4G	Modem for 3G
4G USB Modem - Rs. 7,999/- Indoor Wireless Gateway - Rs. 7,750/-	3G USB Modem - Rs. 1,800 to Rs. 2,500/-

 

According to the FUP (Fair Usage Policy) of Airtel, you will get 128 Kbps download speed after the free usage in your plan. Airtel 3G users get 2G speed (~128Kbps) after the free usage.

Airtel promises a download speed of 20 Mbps on 3G network but do you really get 20 Mbps on that? Then why should we believe this 40 Mbps or 100 Mbps promise.