Which Mobile Network is best in Ladakh?
Disclaimer: This post “Which Mobile Network is best in Ladakh?” post is completely unbiased and based on my personal experience. I had Vodafone and Airtel postpaid sims & Jio prepaid sim during the trip.
In all states except Jammu & Kashmir, getting a mobile network is not a challenge, all major operators have most of the places under coverage. In my case, Jio outperformed Airtel & Vodafone in all the places except Jammu & Kashmir (being Karnataka prepaid sim).
Jio got better coverage and very minimal call drop observed, then Airtel which was OK in most of the places but not reliable at all. Either it got stuck in 2G or 3G most of the time, it was not an issue with the handset (tried with for different mobiles). Call drop rate and slow internet performance observed for a good amount of time and in different states too.
Lastly, Vodafone, trust me it was a pain to have your primary no. in Vodafone, almost every time I faced no internet or slow internet problem, call drop rate was low but coverage was poor in major cities, even in Delhi. So, out of J&K, Jio was the best mobile network per my experience.
Now in J&K, it was a different experience, quite shocking. Being a Karnataka prepaid sim Jio stopped working as soon as I entered J&K, done. Vodafone and Airtel were working fine till Srinagar after Srinagar Vodafone also stopped working. Airtel was working fine in whole J&K, got 4G coverage in Kargil, Leh, etc, else you have mostly 2G coverage which was OK for calls and WhatsApp text message. En-route, in few places, there was no network coverage like Diskit, Pangong, etc.
As per locals, BSNL postpaid will give you better network coverage than others and it worked in Diskit too. Pangong has a telephone booth for Rs. 5/min, we used for a few minutes to inform our stay to our parents.
Best Mobile Network in Ladakh as per my experience
Get BSNL/Airtel postpaid before going to J&K, the first one will give better coverage for calls & text and the second one will you give better internet experience with little bit less coverage. Locals say Jio works well in Leh and Kargil although I have not experienced it. Vodafone, simply not worked for me. So, for me best mobile network in ladakh is either BSNL or Airtel.
Being a remote place, visiting Ladakh needs lots of preparation to be it mentally, physically. Do check out below links to make this trip successful, I am sure you will never regret.
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If you are doing a road trip to Ladakh, you may find my Kolkata – Ladakh – Kolkata on a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 journey helpful, here.
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