TRAI Says Reliance Jio Has Slowest 4G Speeds, Jio Defends Itself

The latest speed report from the telecom body ranks Airtel’s 4G speed as the fastest.

Reliance Jio 4G SIM. (Photo: The Quint)

Reliance Jio’s 4G speeds are not getting slower, in fact as per this latest report, they are the slowest among all operators in India right now.

This has come through none other than the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), via its MySpeed app, launched earlier this year. Their speed test report now puts Airtel and Idea ahead of Jio 4G with faster internet speeds in the country.

This report clearly depicts the growing reality that Jio is finding it hard to cater to its relatively small amount of users, when compared to what Airtel or Idea have.

Here’s the evidence for what we have stated above.

TRAI’s speed report. (Photo Courtesy: MySpeed)

This comes after Ookla, the makers of Speedtest app, also confirmed that Jio 4G speeds have indeed gone down, especially since their services were made available to all from 5 September onwards.

Also Read: It’s Not Just You, Reliance Jio 4G Speeds Have Totally Gone Down

It is also worth noting that TRAI on Thursday has issued Reliance Jio 4G to curtail their free services from 3 December onwards. All users on their network after 4 December will have to pay to use the services.

But... Jio Refutes the Claims

Reliance Jio clearly feels injustice is being done to them. The company has strongly shared its point of view on the matter, but somehow it’s hard to register their stance, and make sense out of it.

As you may be aware, under the Jio Welcome Offer, there is a daily fair usage policy (FUP) limit of 4GB data consumption per user. This limit has been set up with the express intention of preventing heavy data users from degrading the experience of other users. Before this FUP limit is reached, Jio customers enjoy unmatched 4G LTE speeds on the Jio network. 

Reliance Jio Statement

The first phase of the Fiber Grid project has been launched in Andhra Pradesh. (Photo: iStock)

However, 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, we have 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.  

Reliance Jio Statement

Jio’s defence on the slowing down of speeds is nothing but blaming the users for testing their Jio speed after their FUP limit for the day is over. Not really sure if users would be keen on testing their speeds post FUP, when they know that the speeds are anyway an abysmal 256 kbps.

But that’s not all, Jio says that the comparison made with other operators cannot be justified because not all non-Jio users have FUP based plans.

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 (rather their usage is completely stopped, and they are entirely prevented from performing the speed test), and even those who have FUP based plans face this situation only once a month. 

Reliance Jio Statement

Reliance Jio has made big promises. (Photo: The Quint)

It further goes on to say that these users, in fact are instantly recharging their plans to get their original speeds back.

Further, such customers tend to recharge quickly and restore full speeds. 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.  

Reliance Jio Statement

Need for Speed

After going through the opinion of both the sides, all we can say right now is that no matter what Reliance Jio has to speak for itself, they really need to get back to good old days of 20-25 Mbps.

Get the voice calling conundrum sorted at the earliest. Otherwise, it’s easy to suggest that most users, making the best of free internet right now, will walk away when they see a better offer from a competitor.