Reliance Jio has consistently proven its better than its rival telcos in India, challenging the decades-old experience carriers like Airtel and Vodafone have in the business. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regularly tracks and reports 4G speeds from all the carriers in India and Reliance Jio has remained dominant in the race month after month.
TRAI's latest report for March 2019 has crowned Reliance Jio as the fastest 4G network, with its average download speed faster than Airtel, Vodafone and Idea combined. While Airtel comes at a distant second, Vodafone and Idea trail behind. Even though Vodafone and Idea have merged to operate as Vodafone Idea, TRAI has published reports in a way that puts Vodafone and Idea speed results separately.
According to the report, Reliance Jio topped the charts with an average download speed of 22.2Mbps, which is an improvement over February when the telco recorded 20.9Mbps. Airtel came in second with an average download speed of 9.3Mbps in March, which marks a marginal drop from 9.4Mbps in February, IANS reported.
Vodafone came in third with 7Mpbs average download speed in March, which is the only carrier after Jio to show improvement. The telco had recorded 6.8Mbps in February. Finally, Idea's average download speed dipped from 5.7Mpbs in February to 5.7Mbps in March. Combining the total download speeds from all carriers and pitting them against Reliance Jio shows the Mumbai-based telco as a predominant leader.
Even though download speeds are far greater on Jio's network, tables turn while comparing upload speeds of individual telcos. In the same report, TRAI noted that Reliance Jio's 4G upload speed improved with 4.6Mbps, but still trailed behind Vodafone and Idea, which recorded 6Mbps and 5.5Mbps, respectively. Airtel came in last with measly 3.6Mbps average 4G upload speed.
TRAI uses MySpeed app to collect data, based on which it ranks telcos in terms of download and upload speed. While Reliance Jio is clearly the fastest 4G network with the highest download speed, Vodafone trumps the leader with its faster upload speed. Airtel hasn't managed to secure a top spot, which spells trouble for the once-market leader.
