Describing the Mahakumbh Mela as a large-scale stress test for India’s 5G networks, Ookla reported that 5G had a significant performance advantage over 4G during Mahakumbh 2025.
Between January 12 and February 26, in the Prayagraj area, Jio provided the best 5G performance with a median download speed of 201.87 Mbps, followed by Airtel at 165.23 Mbps, said Ookla. Jio set up a 5G Standalone (SA) network that managed 20 million voice calls and 400 million data service requests at peak times. Airtel deployed 287 new sites and laid an additional 74 km of fiber in Prayagraj.
In contrast, Vi recorded a 4G median download speed at just 20.06 Mbps, followed by Jio at 18.19 Mbps, Airtel at 17.65 Mbps and BSNL at 11.64 Mbps.
5G vs 4G
5G download speeds dropped from 259.67 Mbps in early January to 151.09 Mbps at peak congestion on January 26. However, it recovered to 206.82 Mbps by the end of the event. Even at its lowest point, 5G performed nine times faster than 4G speeds that ranged from 13.38 Mbps to 21.68 Mbps.
“Jio reported 83.9 per cent 5G availability, nearly twice that of Airtel’s 42.4 per cent, ensuring broader coverage and more consistent connectivity for users. Jio’s aggressive 5G rollout leveraged the 700 MHz low-band spectrum, enabling wider signal coverage across the densely packed mela ground,” said the report.
Page load time
In terms of page load times, 5G (Jio and Airtel) reported 1.99 seconds, whereas 4G (Jio, Airtel, Vi and BSNL) reported load times ranging from 2.36 seconds to 2.70 seconds. Similarly, for video streaming, Jio and Airtel reported 5G video start times of 1.79 seconds.
Even in terms of upload speeds, 5G ranged from 17.95 Mbps to 19.71 Mbps, while 4G upload speeds peaked at 4.85 Mbps.
5G availability
Jio achieved 83.9 per cent 5G Availability throughout the Mahakumbh period, higher than Airtel’s 42.4 per cent. Airtel’s 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) network, while delivering strong 5G speeds, had lower availability. This is most likely due to its reliance on mid-band spectrum, which has a shorter coverage range compared with low-band frequency deployment.