Reliance Jio blames users for slowest 4G speed

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its recent report has termed Reliance Jio's 4G services as slowest in the country. As per the TRAI report, Jio offers overall download speed of just 6.2 Mbps.

However, Reliance Jio countred TRAI's latest data saying that it is unfairly being blamed despite offering "unmatched 4G speed". Jio claimed that some users are testing their speeds after exhausting their daily fair usage policy (FUP) limit of 4GB data which is being reflected in TRAI's analysis.

"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 setup 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. 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," Jio said in a press statement.

"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. 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. Further, such customers tend to recharge quickly and restore full speeds," Jio further added.

The operator also added: "This difference in the offer structures, and associated customer behaviors, result in a large proportion of the speed tests being conducted onJio network when the speeds are reduced via FUP to 256kbps. This has the effect of dragging the average far below the speeds experienced by Jio customers who are enjoying full 4G LTE speeds."

Note that Reliance Jio's speed varies from circle to circle. For instance, Jio tops the chart in Mumbai at 10.7 Mbps whereas in Delhi circle the speed dips to 5.9 Mbps which pushed the telecom operator to third position. However, in Karnataka circle, Jio goes again down to 5th position despite having 7.5 Mbps.

Further, in terms of upload speeds, Reliance Jio suffer even more with only offering 2.6 Mbps upload speed over 4G network making it stand at the 6th position. Interestingly, the only operator behind Reliance Jio in this case is Reliance Communications at 2.1 Mbps.