Rajiv Mathrani, chief brand officer of Bharti Airtel, has responded to the allegation of Reliance Jio Infocomm that said Airtel’s claim that it is India’s fastest network is false, misleading and incorrect.

ALSO READ: Jio up in arms against Airtel on network speed test

“Airtel is one of the most trusted and admired brands in India. We pride ourselves in maintaining the highest standards of governance and transparency and have been recognized by globally reputed institutions like Transparency International,” said Rajiv Mathrani.

Reliance Jio, which will be starting pricing its 4G services from April 2017, is in the process of trying to retain its 100 million 4G subscribers who joined the network during the free promotion period.

According to some retailers in top cities, Bharti Airtel’s advertising campaign has started affecting the business of Reliance Jio. Because Jio is not offering superior quality voice services, better quality mobile data will be the primary reason if a customer opts for the 4G data services from Jio.

Bharti Airtel’s latest advertising campaign is based on the findings by Ookla, a global leader in speed test and internet diagnostics. Ookla’s findings are based on rigorous and extensive testing across millions of devices and employ the best of data analytics.

“We are rather amused by the allegations being made against our campaign. We believe that this is a deliberate attempt to malign our brand and misguide customers through a campaign of misinformation, which is something we now come across on a regular basis, in particular, on social media platforms,” Rajiv Mathrani said.

Reliance Jio on Monday lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) against broadband tester Ookla’s network speed test that said Bharti Airtel has the fastest network speed.

Ookla said it named Airtel as the Fastest Mobile Network in India based on data from Q3 and Q4 of 2016.

“When analyzing markets, like India, we take many factors into consideration, including dual SIM devices, network technology, device types, and more. In addition to what the user sees on their mobile application as they take a test in real-time, we apply a rigorous methodology when aggregating the data which uses a variety of internal data sources that control for potential variability in the market,” said Jamie Steven, COO of Speedtest by Ookla.

“We are always improving how additional information is collected and analyzed through our Speedtest applications to allow Ookla to accurately reflect internet performance. We have taken dual SIM information into consideration and fully stand behind Airtel being named “India’s Fastest Mobile Network”. India is a dynamic market with a rapidly changing mobile landscape and we look forward to seeing how the market develops,” Jamie Steven said.

Baburajan K
[email protected]