Why Reliance Jio stands 'vindicated' in its war against Airtel
Is it time for vindication?
Even as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are locked in a spat over who has the fastest network, Telecom Regulator Authority of India (TRAI) seems to have settled the debate, at least for now.
The telecom regulator's latest data for three months (December 2016 to February 2017) indicates that Jio is not just at the top spot, but with almost double the download speed of those offered by its main rivals.
And guess what, rival Bharti Airtel is not at the second, but third spot behind Idea Cellular.
According to this PTI report, the monthly average mobile broadband speed data published by TRAI for February 2017 shows that Jio network's download speed declined marginally to 16.48 mbps from 17.42 mbps in January, but it still remained the fastest.
While the download speed on Idea Cellular network was 8.33 mbps, Airtel's speed was 7.66 mbps.
According to TRAI, there have been a marginal decline in the download speeds of Idea and Airtel as well, as compared to their January performance.
 |
| Bharti Airtel is not at the second, but third spot behind Idea Cellular. [Photo: Agencies] |
The same data revealed that download speed on Vodafone and BSNL also dipped to 5.66 mbps (from 6.13 mbps) and 2.01 mbps (from 2.89 mbps).
The average download speed on Reliance Communications, Tata Docomo and Aircel network at the end of February was 2.67 mbps, 2.52 mbps and 2.01 mbps respectively.
TRAI computes speed of mobile data from subscribers across the country with the help of MySpeed application on real-time basis.
Who is the fastest
Jio and Airtel have been caught in a protracted battle over the claim of being the fastest network in India.
The Mukesh Ambani-led group on March 20, had lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) against broadband tester Ookla's network speed test which declared that Bharti Airtel has the fastest network speed. Ookla’s results were for the July-December 2016 period.
Jio had told the ASCI that Ookla does not have any accreditation from the Indian government and is not a "not-for-profit" organisation as it charges money for its services used by telecom companies for their internal consumption. "It charges additional consideration for awarding certificates that may be used by such companies for external consumption, marketing and publicity," Jio had said.
Jio also had an issue with the use of the word "officially".
According to them, it is misleading as the title has not been given out by any government body. The word "officially” when used in the context of telecom services automatically implies that it is somehow linked either to TRAI or the DoT.
Ookla had defended itself saying that Airtel has been named as the "fastest mobile network" in India based on data from Q3 and Q4 of 2016.
"When analysing markets, like India, we take many factors into consideration, including dual SIM devices, network technology, device types, and more. In addition to what the user sees on their mobile application as they take a test in real-time, we apply a rigorous methodology when aggregating the data which uses a variety of internal data sources that control for potential variability in the market," it was quoted as saying.
The ASCI verdict
Following the complaint, the ASCI ruled in Jio's favour and asked Airtel to either "modify" or "withdraw" the advertisement by April 11.
It also said that Airtel's advertisement was "misleading". The ASCI further said that Airtel's claim to be the fastest network "was not adequately substantiated and the basis of comparison has been so chosen as to bestow artificial advantage to the advertiser".
But Airtel refused to accept the ASCI's decision and said it would file an appeal.
All said and done, after the latest TRAI data, it seems Airtel advertising itself as the fastest, using Ookla’s certification, was indeed misleading.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fastest of them all? The mirror says it's Jio, at least for now.