Which Cell Phone Carrier Is the Best in India? Airtel or Vodafone?

There are a few different cell phone carriers throughout India so it’s hard to figure out which one to go with. You obviously want to choose the best cell phone carrier that has the best coverage, but you’re not sure which one to choose. This post will provide insight on which cell phone carrier is the best in India.

The two top cell phone competitors are Airtel and Vodafone. I looked up a lot of information and saw a lot of contrasting opinions. Some said Airtel used to be the best, but now Vodafone is better. Some said Airtel is still the best and there aren’t enough towers for Vodafone, etc. Even though there were a lot of forums that provided insight, they were all conflicting and I still was not sure which cell phone carrier to choose.

My friend in India was helping me plan the beginning part of my trip. She told me to look up which cell phone plan I wanted and to send her it. I sent her an Airtel plan that I thought was the best option. She told me that Vodafone is actually better and has more coverage in India. I was supposed to update her and send a Vodafone plan but I completely forgot. Thankfully I did though! She ended up getting me the Airtel plan since I never sent her the Vodafone package I wanted.

I traveled throughout India from March – June 2019 and found Airtel to be way superior to Vodafone. When I was on a train going from Agra to Varanasi, I had perfect cell phone reception throughout the train ride. My friends who had Vodafone kept complaining that they didn’t have any cell reception. Totally not ideal when you’re on a 10+ hour train ride with nothing to do!

Another person I met told me he had Vodafone but decided to switch to Airtel because he wasn’t getting good reception. Ever since he switched to Airtel from Vodafone, he said he never had an issue with cell phone coverage!

The Winner: Airtel!

So in conclusion, I definitely recommend Airtel over Vodafone if you’re getting a SIM card in India. The cell phone coverage is way superior to Vodafone. A lot of people I met had poor coverage using Vodafone.