June 01, 2023

TRAI, the telecom regulator in India, has tested the speeds of 4G service providers and has found out that the much-touted Reliance Jio comes a poor fifth in downloads and fourth in uploads among the top 5 operators in the country. Jio download speed is just 6.2 mbps (Airtel tops with 11.4 mbps) and download speed is even poorer at 2.4 mbps (Idea tops with 4.1 mbps).

While these figures are disturbing for a network that has promised the moon to its subscribers and might put off a few, two things need to be considered before slamming the company. First, Jio has said that it is testing its network. That also means that it will be tested for capacity and load factor. As subscribers increase, the load on the network will multiply and the company will be able to gauge what needs to be done to keep its high speed promises. Second, the service is totally free now and there is a daily limit of 4GB on 4G downloads and uploads per subscriber under the fair usage policy (FUP). Once that limit is exhausted, the speed is obviously going to be throttled. For a free service, Jio will naturally want all its subscribers to enjoy seamlessly and will not allow unlimited downloads and uploads to a few whose requirement exceeds the daily FUP limit.

These are teething and usage problems which every company faces. People using dongles with 3G speeds of other teclos have also reported that once the monthly limit is exhausted, the service works at a snail’s pace, much below the promised 256 kbps. Hence, this is not something to be alarmed at. Jio has invested a huge amount in creating a 4G backbone and given Reliance’s penchant for big things, one is sure that once it starts charging for the service, it will keep all its promises about speed and reliability.