Jio tops 4G download speed chart in September: TRAI

Jio recorded an average download speed of 21 mbps per second in September 2019, followed by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone with 8.3 mbps and 6.9 mbps speed.

New Delhi: Telecom operator Reliance Jio recorded over 2.5 times higher average data download speed of 21 megabit per second in September 2019, compared to its closest competitor Bharti Airtel, according to data released by the sector regulator TRAI.

Bharti Airtel network recorded an average download speed of 8.3 mbps in September. It was followed by Vodafone with 6.9 mbps and Idea Cellular with 6.4 mbps download speed.

Both Vodafone and Idea Cellular have merged their businesses but their network integration is still on.

Mean fixed broadband download speeds in India have risen by 16.5 per cent during the second quarter (Q2) and third quarter (Q3) of 2019 and topped 34.07 Mbps in September while country-wide Internet speeds were expected to increase, US-based broadband speed tester Ookla said on Wednesday.

"With Reliance Jio's rollout of its new GigaFiber service in India in early September, we will likely continue to see countrywide speeds increase," the company said in a statement.

According to Ookla's report, which examined the recent trends in the Indian telecom market during the last two quarters, India is the leader in mean fixed broadband download speed amongst other neighboring countries, with Bangladesh at 24.02 Mbps and Pakistan with flat speeds between 8.54 and 9.14 Mbps.

On Tuesday, private mobile data analytics firm Opensignal said it has found Bharti Airtel with the fastest data download speed between June-August 2019. Data published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India showed the Jio was on top of the chart during the Opensignal survey period.

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.

State-owned BSNL, which has an only 3G network, maintained its lead in the segment over private telecom operators with a download speed of 2.6 mbps and upload speed of 1.3 mbps.

Idea Cellular regained the top spot in the upload segment with 5.4 mbps speed in September by pipping its partner Vodafone, which recorded an average upload speed of 5.2 mbps. Jio was on the third spot in the segment with an upload speed of 4.2 Mbps and it was followed by Airtel with an upload speed of 3.1 mbps, according to the data published by TRAI.

The download speed helps in accessing content from various applications while upload speed helps in the sharing of content by the subscribers like email, photo, video, etc.