Reliance Jio’s 4G speed slowest among 5 companies, reveals Trai test

NEW DELHI: Data published on Trai's website on Thursday showed 4G speed on the network of Reliance Jio slower than speeds offered by Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone. The finding was, however, contested by the country's newest telecom operator.

Trai's analytics portal listed the 4G speed of Airtel at 11.4 megabits per second (mbps), Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications' at 7.9 mbps, Idea's at 7.6 mbps, and Vodafone's at 7.3 mbps. Jio, which is a 4G-only network, was recorded at 6.2 mbps.

In a response to comments sought by TOI, Jio disputed the Trai data. "With reference to statistics published on Trai's analytics website, we have performed an internal analysis of the same. Based on this analysis, we believe that the comparison of Jio speeds with other operators has an inherent bias against Jio data usage," the company's statement said.

It claimed that the data speed on the company's network was being measured after consumers exhaust the daily fair usage policy (FUP) limit of 4GB data download per user. Speed after this limit falls to 256 kbps.

"Historically, we have observed that a disproportionate number of speed tests are performed once the FUP comes into effect. This is because most users don't consider performing the test until they observe a deterioration of speed... This has the effect of dragging the average far below the speeds experienced by Jio customers who are enjoying full 4G LTE speeds."