Reliance Jio Again Outranks Airtel by a Twofold Margin in 4G Download Speed Chart During January: Trai

HIGHLIGHTS

• Reliance Jio achieved an average 4G download speed of 18.8 Mbps during January 2019
• Idea Cellular continues to lead the upload speed chart with an average speed of 5.8 Mbps

Just a couple of days ago, network tracking portal, Ookla revealed its speed test report of Indian telecom operators in which it stated Bharti Airtel is the fastest operator in India. However, the data of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) reveals that Reliance Jio is the fastest telecom operator in India with its download speeds double as those of Bharti Airtel. According to the data revealed by Trai for the month of January 2019, Reliance Jio registered an average download speed of 18.8 Mbps which is followed by Airtel with 9.5 Mbps average 4G download speed. As always, Idea Cellular is still leading the average upload speeds chart followed by its partner Vodafone India.

Jio is the Fastest Telecom Operator in 2019 Says Trai

As noted, Reliance Jio continued to top the average 4G download speed chart, beating its nearest rival Airtel with almost double data speed, according to a report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for January 2019. Jio’s 4G network registered an average download speed of 18.8 megabits per second (Mbps), while Airtel network clocked a speed of 9.5 Mbps.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea have a mix of 2G, 3G and 4G networks, but Jio provides only 4G services. According to the Trai report, Vodafone registered an average speed of 6.7 Mbps, while Idea had an average speed of 5.5 Mbps on 4G network.

Though Vodafone and Idea have merged their mobile businesses, Trai measured their performance separately as the integration of networks of both the companies is currently on. Reliance Jio was the fastest 4G operator in 2018 with the highest average download speed for the last 13 months.

Idea Cellular Leads the Average 4G Upload Speed List

Idea Cellular, however, continued to top the chart in terms of average 4G upload speed. After a continuous decline in upload speed between October and December, upload speed on Idea and Vodafone network picked up in January.

In January, Idea 4G network registered an average upload speed of 5.8 Mbps, followed by Vodafone with an upload speed of 5.4 Mbps. Jio followed Vodafone with an upload speed of 4.4 Mbps and Airtel with 3.8 Mbps. The average speed is computed by Trai based on the data it collects across India with the help of its MySpeed application on a real-time basis.

Ookla Rated Bharti Airtel as the Fastest Operator in India

Just a couple of days ago, Ookla revealed its report titled “Analysing India’s 4G Availability: Including a Look at the 15 Largest Cities,” which rated Bharti Airtel as the fastest telecom operator of India. During the second half of 2018, Airtel achieved an average data speed of 11.23 Mbps, while that of Jio was said as 7.11 Mbps. Even in the past, we saw these differences in the rankings made by Trai and private network testing services like Ookla and OpenSignal.

Even the telecom regulator openly admitted that its MySpeed application’s algorithms should be tweaked to match those of Ookla and OpenSignal.