Jio and Airtel 5G reality: real 5G or what?

 From the article's title, you may have understood what I am going to talk about now. Okay, let me just explain a few things to make it clear about why I mentioned that. I am going to share the reality of Jio and Airtel 5G over here. So, let's start with the issues. Have you ever noticed something suspicious while using the 5G network on your phone? Have you ever thought, Is 5G that slow? You surely have been through the situation where you are connected to 5G, and the network operator could be anyone, like Jio or Airtel, and you're thinking, 'Is 5G that slow?' Or is my mobile not capable enough to get that much speed? You may think that there should be some tower-related issues there. But, even in Metro cities where the network speed should be higher than in any other city, the same slow internet issue was there too. Are we really using 5G now? Or, we are in a trap again, as Jio did at the time of launching Jio 4G, and started reshaping the plan prices. The same game is happening again. Operators are advertising their fast 5G networks for free and giving unlimited 5G data for some plans. Are all these traps to again reshape the future of telecommunication? Let’s talk about it in detail here.

As of now, Reddit and Twitter(X) are flooded by some specific tweets that Airtel 4G data is exhausted while using the 5G network. We have seen multiple screenshots that the mobile is getting 5G signals, and still, the 4G data is running out. Some of us have experienced the same. So, first let me clear this thing, the 5G written top right corner of your phone does not give you a guarantee that you are using the proper 5G network at that time. It is just an indicator that your mobile is capable of receiving the 5G networks now. But with the 5G written at the top right corner of your screen, your mobile can still use the 4G data, and the daily 4G data limit will be exhausted too. Because it will automatically shift to 4G when needed. It is not important whether your mobile is showing 4G at the top of the screen or not. Now, this mostly happens with Airtel. Jio users may get unlimited data, but the 5G speed is just as 4G. Even sometimes it could get slower. Now I will share why this happens. I will tell you why after getting 5G signals on our phone, our Airtel 4G data limit is used, as well as why Jio 5G is slow like 4G networks.

So, first let’s discuss the Airtel network. Airtel promises 5G plus unlimited offers with some of the plans. Now the thing is, Airtel is not actually using a proper and different tower for 5G. Over here, it did a cost-cutting on this. Airtel is using its already existing 4G towers to spread 5G all over India. It means our 5G data transmission is done by the old 4G towers. And we are sharing the same path of data transfer with 4G while we are using 5G data. It is a billion-dollar project to make different towers for 5G. It is not possible for Airtel to make towers in almost every city in India to spread 5G data within a short time. It will take a lot of time and effort. Rather than doing that, Airtel did the smart move to use the already existing 4G towers to transmit the 5G connection. Now, how it actually works, let's share that. Airtel actually made a different lane to do the high-speed 5G data transfer work on the existing 4G lane. The separate lane for 5G sometimes got stuck for some reason because from the other lanes, the 4G data is also running, and the infrastructure is not good enough to send 5G data with the existing 4G towers. Though Airtel is working on that, and soon it will be totally fixed. But as of now, Airtel will continuously use its already placed 4G towers to transfer 5G data. Also, Airtel is continuously working on the towers to make them capable enough to do high-speed 5G data transfer.

Now, if we talk about Jio here, Jio did a good job at some points. Jio chooses a long game rather than a short-term solution for it. Jio is ready to invest crores on these projects and make different towers for 5G data transmission. That is the reason Jio is promoting their 5G network as a True 5G network because they are using different towers to transfer 5G networks. They will not use the 4G towers to do that. In this way, their 4G data speed will be the same as before. And that is the reason why Jio is mentioning that they are making 5G SA data transfer. SA means Stand Alone. As they are using separate towers to handle the 5G network-related work that is why it is called Stand Stand-Alone network. Now, some of us may have the question that everything looks perfect over here, so why does the Jio 5G sometimes give less speed than usual at many places? Why can't we use the full potential of 5G data in Jio too?

Here is the answer. There are three types of bandwidth. One is less speed and more distance, the next is medium speed with medium distance, and the last one is more speed with less distance. The first one is very beneficial if we have a single tower for a very long distance area. Because the signal can go through walls, iron pipes, and anything appearing in front of them, the data transfer speed is very slow over here. The medium one did the same work but with less distance covered and with some higher speeds. This network can be harmed by a very thick layer of concrete walls and iron walls. And the last one transmits data at a very high speed, but with a limitation. Even a piece of paper can harm the data transfer speed. So now the point is, if we choose the high-speed and shorter distance option, then we may have to place towers within some kilometres after one tower. And as well as the first one, long distance option is beneficial when we have towers placed at a very long distance. But, of course, it transfers data at a very slow speed. Now, the question is what Jio and Airtel use for their 5G data transfer. Let’s talk about that because one of the main points of slow 5G data is this one.

Now Jio chooses the slowest one as they are going to place new 5G standalone towers for their 5G network connection. Jio invested a thousand crores of money buying this. Jio has now started placing their new towers across the country for 5G data transfer. So they can't focus and place all their towers in a single location. That’s why they are placing some towers in every location nationwide, which makes it possible to transfer the 5G data all over India and in every corner of India. Jio mainly focuses on availability, which means we will get signals all over India because the bandwidth type they have chosen can cover a long distance. In this way, Jio is focusing on sending 5G data in all the locations of our country. As well as we are witnessing some speed increase on our 5G data in Jio. That is because Jio is placing Optical fibre cables in every city of India, and at those locations where it is already placed, its users will get a good 5G network speed of Jio. At the same time, Airtel is using the medium speed and medium distance version. That’s why they have to place more towers than Jio to cover a certain area. This is the reason Airtel is using its existing towers. Because it needs a lot of money and time to place 5G towers in all the cities of India.

Here, Jio is playing a sustainability game where users will get Jio 4G and 5G towers in any location in our country, but can experience slow internet and data transfer speed. On the other hand, Airtel is focusing on speed and covers only some areas where Airtel 4G signals are already available. With these tactics, Airtel is also failing to achieve the true potential of 5G data speed. Because 4G towers are not capable enough to handle 5G data transmission. Day by day, we are seeing that both networks are trying to improve their speed and stability, and we hope that we will get a high-speed internet connection with good network coverage with every network operator soon.