Reliance Jio is behind in 4G speeds in India and Bharti Airtel is the undisputed leader when it comes to mobile Internet speed, says TRAI.
The 4G speed comparison is based on feedback received from mobile data users on MySpeed App.
The chart indicates that Bharti Airtel is clocking 11.4 Mbps speed, Reliance Communications with 7.9 Mbps, Idea Cellular with 7.6 Mbps, Vodafone India with 7.3 Mbps and Jio at 6.2 Mbps speed.
This indicates that Reliance Jio could not keep its broadband speed after it started acquiring more subscribers. Jio in September month alone added 16 million 4G subscribers. However, Jio did not say that these customers are active users or not.
Jio says
Under the Jio Welcome Offer, there is a daily fair usage policy (FUP) limit of 4GB data consumption per user. This limit has been setup with the intention of preventing heavy data users from degrading the experience of other users.
After the FUP usage limit is reached, speeds are reduced to 256kbps. Full 4G LTE speeds are once again restored once the next 24-hour period begins.
Historically, Jio has observed that a disproportionate number of speed tests are performed once the FUP comes into effect. This is so since most users don’t consider performing the test until they observe a deterioration of speed. Such users also tend to perform multiple tests until full speeds are restored.
Given that data usage under Jio Welcome Offer is completely free, a higher proportion of Jio users run up against the FUP limit. In comparison, not all non-Jio users have FUP based plans, and even those who have FUP based plans face this situation only once a month. Further, such customers tend to recharge quickly and restore full speeds.
Jio said this difference in the offer structures, and associated customer behaviors, result in a large proportion of the speed tests being conducted on Jio network when the speeds are reduced via FUP to 256kbps. This has the effect of dragging the average far below the speeds experienced by Jio customers who are enjoying full 4G LTE speeds.
