Reliance Jio tops TRAI 4G download speed chart while Idea trumps in upload speeds

**Reliance Jio** emerged as the fastest 4G operator with its average peak download speed in October at 22.3 Mbps while Idea Cellular clocked the highest upload speed in the month, according to a TRAI report. Jio’s national average of 4G download speed was more than double compared to its rival Bharti Airtel, which recorded a download speed of 9.5 megabits per second (Mbps) in October, according to the data published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on its MySpeed portal. [caption id=“attachment_3937647” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] File image of a Reliance Jio Digital Life Store. Reuters[/caption] A study by private entity OpenSignal released in first week of November for the period 1 June - 29 August, 2018, had rated Airtel as the fastest in terms of 4G download speed; but according to the result published on TRAI portal, Jio has been ruling the chart even in June and August. Though Vodafone and Idea have merged their mobile services business as Vodafone Idea, the merged entity is still operating separately under brand name of Vodafone and Idea and Trai’s analytics portal also carried their speed results separately. Idea and Vodafone registered average download speed of 6.4 and 6.6 Mbps, respectively in October. Idea, however, continued to top the chart in terms of 4G upload speed with a speed of 5.9 Mbps during the month. The download speed plays an important role when a user watches any video, browse the Internet, access emails; and a good upload speed is required when a user wants to share data like images, videos and any other files through email or social media applications. Jio pipped Vodafone in October and followed Idea with improvement in upload speed at 5.1 mbps. Vodafone network registered average upload speed of 4.8 mbps for the month. Airtel network registered average upload speed of 3.8 mbps in October. Both Jio and Idea have continued to maintain their leadership in their respective segments since last several months. The average speed is computed by TRAI based on data it collects with help of its MySpeed application on a real-time basis. Disclosure - Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd