Reliance Jio tops download charts with average 4G speed of 9.9 Mbps

In October 2016 Reliance Jio was the slowest data network by Trai's rankings but, after covering ground rapidly, the network is now back in the ranking charts. Jio now tops the download charts with an average speed of 9.9 Mbps for its 4G network, followed by Airtel, which ranks second with 8.1 Mbps, followed by Vodafone at 7.5 Mbps.

Reliance Jio 4G network's average download reached 18.16 megabits per second (Mbps) in December 2016, its highest since launch of its commercial 4G services in September, as per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data.

The monthly average mobile data speed published by Trai showed that the Reliance Jio download speed was 5.85Mbps in November 2016, which was lower than peak speed of 7.26Mbps in September.

The average speeds at Airtel is much lower at 5.5 Mbps and at Telenor it is 5.4 Mbps.

Among other networks, Vodafone download speed increased to 6.7Mbps in December from 4.9Mbps in November.

Idea network showed average download speed of 5.03Mbps, Bharti Airtel's 4.68Mbps, BSNL's 3.42Mbps, Aircel's 3Mbps and Reliance Communications' 2.6Mbps in December.

In November, download speed on Airtel network was 5.93Mbps followed by Jio at 5.85Mbps, Vodafone 4.9Mbps, Idea 4.36Mbps, BSNL 3.54Mbps, Aircel 3Mbps and RCom 2.3Mbps.

Jio offers only 4G LTE services, while the older networks such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, and Telenor also offer 2G and 3G network services.

Reliance Jio still lags in upload speed, registering on average only 2.6 Mbps and holds the 5th spot in rankings. Vodafone, Airtel, and Idea take the top honours with 4.1 Mbps, 3.9 Mbps, and 3.3 Mbps, respectively.

Meanwhile, all Jio customers, old and new, are eligible for its 'Happy New Year Offer' scheme, which has a cap of 1 GB free data usage per day, as against  the 4 GB cap in the earlier Welcome Offer. The validity of the new offer is up to 31 March 2017.

As per recently released Trai report, Jio scored top customer additions in the month of October 2016 as well, with 19.6 million new users signing up, while in December 2016, Jio had claimed over 50 million customers.

Meanwhile, in a fresh petition filed with the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), Bharti Airtel had alleged that telecom regulator Trai was ''perpetuating illegality'' by allowing Reliance Jio to ''game'' the interconnection regulation with its free calls and data offer, the Economic Times reported. According to Airtel, Trai had ''tacitly'' allowed Jio to break existing regulations and had termed the promo offers as ''anti-competitive'' in its filing.

In its earlier filing with the TDSA, Airtel said that Jio's promo offers were extended beyond the prescribed period of 90 days (as set by Trai). Airtel further requested the tribunal that Trai's 20 October 2016 ruling which said that tariffs and promo offers by Jio were complaint with current regulations be quashed.