Reliance Jio Offers The Fastest 4G With An Average Download Speed Of 18.48 Mbps In March 2017
Reliance Jio is on the rise and it is not just about its increasing market share and revenue, but about its network quality as well. According to latest data (as of 1 April 2017) from TRAI’s MySpeed portal, Jio’s average download speed reached an average of 18.487 Mbps by the end of March 2017.
It is worth noting that Jio’s average download speed had taken a hit in February and reached 16.487 Mbps as compared to 17.427 Mbps in January 2017. But as it is evident from the monthly trend graph, the operator has worked hard on boosting its download speed and its hard work has paid off. The average speed of Jio was more than double that of Idea Cellular who has second fastest average speed of 7.4 Mbps.
What’s Wrong With The Competitor’s 4G Download Speed?
According to the MySpeed data, Idea Cellular offered the fastest 4G among the incumbents in January and February 2017, but registered a sharp decline in its average 4G download speed in March and is down to 8.885 Mbps.
A similar trend can be observed in the monthly average download speed data of Airtel whose download speed reached a low of 9.136 Mbps in March 2017.
Vodafone however, has worked its way up in March and offered an average download speed of 9.003 Mbps.
So, as of 1 April 2017, Airtel 4G (9.136 Mbps) is the fastest among the incumbents, followed by Vodafone 4G (9.003 Mbps), and Idea 4G (8.885 Mbps).
The exact reason for this downward trend in average download speed amidst this 4G tariff plans battle is not known, but if we were to guess, then we would blame it on the network saturation of Idea 4G and Airtel 4G.
This saturation might have been caused by increasing number of subscribers opting for unlimited voice and 1 GB 4G data/day tariff plans offered by the incumbents. The incumbents have also added registered a total growth of 12% during the second half of 2016-17.
While this is a good thing for the telecom players as they have become successful in adding more subscribers and raising the ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) without losing many of their subscribers, but their 4G networks have clearly taken a hit.
Vodafone Emerged As The Fastest 3G Operator With 3.7 Mbps Average Download Speed
Talking about average 3G download speed offered by the operators, Vodafone 3G holds the top position at 3.7 Mbps and is followed by Airtel 3G at 3.4 Mbps, and Idea 3G at 2.8 Mbps.
Tata Docomo 3G came at #4 with an average download speed of 2.5 Mbps, while BNSL 3G stood at 2.2 Mbps. MTNL 3G was the slowest among the 3G operators with its average download speed of just 1.2 Mbps.
Which 4G operator do you use and what’s your experience with it? I use Jio 4G which offers okayish download speed most of the times, but I have learnt over the past few months that you can not rely on Jio for your important work. I have also tried Airtel 4G, and while it is more reliable than Jio, its indoor download speed is more like 3G.
I have not tried Idea 4G and Vodafone 4G so I would love to hear your experience with them. Kindly post a comment.
There may be something not right about the data shown in http://www.myspeed.trai.gov.in/.
For JIO 4G network selection, except Goa (43-44 Mbps) none of the other states have an average speed above 10 Mbps. But somehow the average speed across India is being shown as 17.95 Mbps! Is my math correct?
I agree with Abhilash. I am living in Kerala and there is a jio tower right opposite to my office on the next building. (It is just 10 steps away if you cross the perimeter wall) I have checked many times and the speed just varies between 10 and 12 Mbps. I used to have the jio sim in my mobile but since range was poor, I opted for Jiofi3. Now the range is better (not good) and speed is satisfactory. But, I still need to go the terrace to get good coverage and speed.
Exactly, I have checked outdoors in many metro cities too, but my speed hardly crossed 20 Mbps outdoors. The indoor speed on the other hand varies between 1-5 Mbps for me. So what makes the average download speed cross 18 Mbps!!
Out of curiosity – may I ask what you do that REQUIRES such high speed? Like, when you got 20 Mbps outdoors or whatever…. – what did you DO with it??
It is not about what I did with that speed, rather it is about getting what I paid for. But to answer your question, I would say that such high speeds would let you enjoy VR content, cloud file sharing, and do all such stuff in a jiffy. If I am paying for 4G speeds, then I want 4G speeds, 3G speed won’t cut it.
Getting only 2-3 mbps max in Jio 4g (Kolkata / WB Circle)