Reliance Jio has topped the telecom regulator’s 4G download speed test for the eighth consecutive month, official data showed on Monday.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s speed data, Jio recorded average speed of 18.433 Mbps for the month of August. It was followed by Vodafone (8.999 Mbps), Idea Cellular (8.746 Mbps) and Bharti Airtel (8.550 Mbps).
But earlier this month, broadband speed testing firm OpenSignal claimed that they found Bharti Airtel’s 3G and 4G speeds to be highest for three months, while Idea and Vodafone were locked for second place in 4G download, each with a measured average LTE speed of 7.4 Mbps. The report analysed over 7 billion measurements from over seven lakh mobile devices across India and covered the period June 1 to August 31, 2017.
“As it did six months ago, Airtel took both our 4G speed and 3G speed awards. We measured average LTE downloads of 9.2 Mbps and 3G downloads of 3.6 Mbps on its networks. Despite its wins though, both metrics were down from our last report,” said OpenSignal’s report ‘State of Mobile Networks: India’.
It captures the intense battle for 4G dominance between incumbent Bharti Airtel and upstart Reliance Jio and notes that the battle still rages, albeit with a “new twist”.
“In the past six months, Jio’s 4G speeds have risen dramatically, coinciding perfectly with the end of its free- data bonanza in March,” it pointed out.
As per OpenSignal, in the six months between its reports, Jio’s average 4G download speed result climbed from 3.9 Mbps to 5.8 Mbps – a 50 per cent rise that could be attributed to decongestion of the Jio network after end of its free-data offers.
(Written with agency inputs)