Despite Airtel's bold claims of being the fastest network in the industry, it has somehow slipped to the fourth position behind Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. There have been various claims made by most of the telecom brands; however, none of them manage to deliver speeds promised in the advertisements.
Even though Reliance Jio made it to the top of the list, the average speed of the telecom giant dropped from 19.12 megabit per second (mbps) recorded in May to 18.8 mbps in June. Vodafone was the second in the chart with an average download speed of 12.29 mbps, followed by Idea Cellular which registered 11.68 mbps of average speed and Bharti Airtel at 8.23 mbps, as per Trai data.
In 3G segment, Vodafone recorded highest download speed of 5.65 mbps in June. It was followed by Idea with 3G download speed of 3.59 mbps, Airtel 3.37 mbps, Aircel 2.36 mbps and state-run BSNL 1.59 mbps, it showed.
Since the launch of Reliance Jio in September last year, the growth in data speeds of all telecom giants has increased manifold. The status quo was disrupted after the introduction of free data and voice calling offers for almost six months after the official launch.
However, Jio's Dhan Dhana Dhan offer period is coming to an end and we have to wait and see if Mukesh Ambani launches another offer to replace it or carry on with the standard tariffs. Airtel, on the other hand, has launched a new Monsoon Surprise offer that will give its customers 30GB of free data on postpaid connections. The offer can be availed by using the MyAirtel application on Google Play Store and Apple's App Store.
BSNL also responded by launching an array of data packs. The latest being Sixer 666 which offers 2GB a day for 60 days including free voice calls.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. is planning to increase the speeds using a submarine cable system. Last week, Jio announced the launch of the Asia-Africa-Europe (AAE-1) submarine cable system. AAE-1, touted to be the longest 100Gbps technology based submarine system, will stretch over 25,000 km from Marseille in France to Hong Kong, with 21 cable landings across Asia and Europe.
"The new terabit capacity and 100Gbps direct connectivity to global content hubs and interconnection points ensure that Jio will continue to offer its customers the most exceptional high speed internet and digital service experience," said Mathew Oommen, President-Jio.
"We are excited to participate in the launch and deliver the cable landing in Mumbai at the time when India's data traffic continues its accelerated data consumption and growth," he added.
The project is the combined work of telecom service providers from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. With diversified Points of Presence (PoP) in Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) and three onward connectivity options in Europe (via France, Italy and Greece), AAE-1 will provide the requisite flexibility and diversity for carriers and their customers.